LES SERPENTS NOIRS
From 1967 "Les Serpents Noirs" (aka The Black Snakes) features a mixture
of guitarist Frankie Charlier penned originals and material written by then
19 year old Gilbert Lerat (the back cover has a great photo of an uncomfortable
looking Lerat sitting in front of a tape recorder). The paisley jacketed
band photo on the front cover gives you the impression these guys were a
bunch of Sgt. Pepper wannabes, but for the most part this is Belgian garage-pop
with a few fuzz tunes & ballads. Fueled by some nice Frankie Charlier fuzz
guitar, "Keep Your Hands Quiet" has an outright psych feel as well as the
instrumentals "Sixty Nine" & "Psychy Boat", which have brief psych influences
before mutating into more conventional Stax-styled instrumental jam. Franklin
Charlier also deserves special notice for turning in a killer fuzz guitar
solo at the end of "Sixty Nine". The garage-pop ballads include "Porquoi?";
"Sourire à l'amour'' "Dany" & "Mon Seul Amour"). Most of the twelve
tracks are in French, but rhythm guitarist André Tixhon shows some versatility
with a couple of English language performances. "Come On" is a nice rocker
showcasing Tixhon's capable voice in powering the band through the more
up tempo numbers as well as some of the ballads. His English may have been
a little fractured, but his gruff delivery more than made up for those deficiencies.
Bobby Patard's sax propelled blues instrumental "Bobby Blues" rounds out
the LP with a unique charm. Impossible to find now days, Les Serpents Noirs
with its great primitive garage psychedelic & pop-ballad tracks, was issued
in micro quantities on the small Olympia label (3372), out of Belgium. A
rare find indeed. Listen to audio clips of the underlined songs. Audio is
taken directly from vinyl, recorded in 56 kbps to reduce download times.
This means the sound might be a bit dull. The record will sound much clearer!
Track listing: (Side-1) (1) Porquoi? (Gilbert Lerat) - (2) Come
On (F. Charlier-Malinda) - (3) Elle a touts justie 17 ans (Gilbert Lerat)
- (4) Bobby Blues (instrumental) (F. Charlier-Malinda) - (5) Sixty
Nine (instrumental) (F. Charlier-Malinda) - (6) Sourire a l'amour (Gilbert
Lerat) - (Side-2) (1) Psychy
Boat (instrumental) (F. Charlier-Malinda) - (2) Mon Seul Amour (Gilbert
Lerat - F. Charlier-Malinda) - (3) Dany (Weisman - Wies Fred) - (4) Keep
Your Hands Quiet (F. Charlier-Malinda) - (5) Mirage (F. Charlier-Malinda)
- (6) J'ai Peur (Gilbert Lerat - F. Charlier-Malinda) From 1967, this is
the only 12" LP by Les Serpents Noir. Made in Belgium, the thinly constructed
record jacket appears in overall Very Good condition with some corner creases
& wear of note along the opening edge. The Mono labels & playing surfaces
appear in overall Excellent condition!
