Sidony Box: Pink Paradise (2011)

Dan McClenaghan

Senior Contributor since 2002

A lover of sounds, and the way they fit together.

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Published: November 20, 2011

Pink Paradise, by the French power trio Sidony Box, may sport the pinkest cover art since vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson's Happenings (Blue Note, 1966). The music, though, couldn't be more different. Hutcherson put together a bop quartet with pianist Herbie Hancock to craft a mellow and meditative sound. Sidony Box wails with a guitar, sax and drums trio, bursting with urgency—a blazing and obstreperous crew.

Even when the band drifts, as it does on the opening "Last Star," it does so with a certain intensity, conjuring images of a waning star emitting a cold, radiant electronic wave, on a drift through deep space, and announcing that Sidony Box is a conglomerate with an oddly metallic synchronicity. Many groups are praised for an organic approach; Sidony Box can be noted, in a positive light, for an inorganic sound. Elie Dalibert's alto sax echoes against Manuel Adnot's reverberating electric guitar—metal on metal—enmeshed in Arthur Narcy's roiling, and rumbling drums.

"Tatooine" meanders with in an industrial ambiance before hitting a groove and cranking up to the high heat cooking level, flames blazing blue and threatening to burst out of control. The "TMNT," has a thrashing heavy metal rock feel, with doom just around the corner, while the title tune, on this set of all Sidony Box originals, takes the music into surreal, pastoral territory, a tune with a hopeful mood that leads into "Suedois," a tumultuous six minutes of heavy beats and squalling guitar and saxophone.

Sidony Box boasts a style that melds jazz, pop and hard, in-your-face rock, with unfettered electronics supplied by Adnot. The trio demonstrates plugged-in muscularity on "Wilson," shifting into a spare and eerie ambiance on "Leman" before closing out with hauntingly beautiful "Ultimate Pop Song."

Track Listing: Last Star; Tatooine; TMNT; Pink Paradise; Suedois; Wilson; Leman; Ultimate Pop Song.

Personnel: Elie Dalibert: alto saxophone; Manuel Adnot: guitar; Arthur Narchy: drums.

Record Label: Naive Records
Style: Modern Jazz