Horrific Child – L'Etrange Mr Whinster

I have no idea is this was an error, but I own the original Eurodisc LP and since it doesn't mention the tracklisting on label, my copy looks like the sides were switched where side one is "H.I.A." (the side-length piece) and side two is "Frayeur" and "Angoisse" (the first piece with the African chanting, the second with the eerie synth drones). Were they all like this? Reissues obviously remedied that problem by including the tracklisting on the label.

Horrific Child's L'ETRANGER MR. WHINSTER is quite possibly the most extraordinary creation of Massiera's career (and also the most obscure) a mysterious enigma through and through. A bizarre dream-like imagery pervades this strange collage of rock, cosmic and folky typically French progressive styles, not least in the abundant use of sound effects, and a concoction that at times becomes almost musique concrète. A wonder of studio wizardry, where elements of Visitors and Atlantide run alongside synthesizers, sound fragments and poetry. It's, in effect, progressive rock as pure art, dazzlingly creative, and oh so very strange!

Frankly, how many times you've bought a record just because you liked the cover? Mostly you've always hoped that the music inside was at the height of a well-cared artwork. This happens rarely, often only one half of the sky is perfect, while the other is only a reflex. But then the miracle happens, and this miracle is called "The Strange Mr. Whinster". A stunning cover made of various pout-pourri of cutted-up images from the strangest sources (a giant insect/amphibian head over the armoured body of Philip II of Spain, with the background full of snakes, lizards who bite severed fingers,cyclopic eyes and spiderwebs) and two sides full of the tastiest psych-abstract-prog-??? slop that any freak head SHOULD adore above all.
But let us proceed with order: A ) The absolute peak of this record is the first side,more than sixteen minutes of every scary sound you can heard in a thousand halloweens, able to fill a dozen horror movies and forty prog albums. It opens with a fanfare of trumpets, and then a deluge of twisted pianos, heavy breaths, reverse organ riffs, gallopping horses, slamming doors, opera choirs, hysterical screams, violins, burps and moremoremore...only at the fifth minute then outlines some recognizable instrument (drums, guitars and a Farfisa organ), slightly preceded by a sample of a menacing french voice that seems to come from the hole of a sink (and that is repeated five minutes later, but with a different speech). Only at the end the piece seems to take a more snuff-jazz-rock turn, but it's just an illusion,the real coda is a magnificent flamenco arpeggio full of glitches,clicks'n cuts,like Tarrega's "Capricho Arabe" remixed by Fennesz.
Unclassifiable. B) The flip side is a cool prog suite in a more "canonical" way (but several steps ahead than the 2/3 of the prog which was published at that time), less ambient-driven and more percussive oriented than the other side, with tons of special effects(ethno school) which give the piece a "sacred" look, very oriental. Remember In den Gärten Pharaos? Right, but with a drunk Florian, and the game is done. Great, but all the honor goes to Jean-Pierre Massiera,the man behind the mask, probably the best french musician in tha world (maybe after Sebastien Tellier,but's another story..) and the father of this incredible masterpiece,surely in the prog world,but even in the entire universe. Only an insignificant detail: this lp is rare as an ent's tooth and only thirteen crazies with nuts in the brain know of its existence on earth. But if you can accept an advice from an idiot, begin to slip some nuts in the nose and search for this relic. You will not be disappointed.