Bipsautru Chu Content (Canada, Private 1978)

This album is not the rarest album that doesn't exist I mentioned earlier, but almost so. Chu Content = Je suis content (I am happy) in joual (= cheval or horse), the french-canadian dialect or pronunciation of french. This is a private pressing from Hull, Quebec, across from the nation's capital of Ottawa. Hull is famous in the outaouais region for strip clubs in which touching is not just permitted but encouraged, and huge government (of Canada) offices. Coincidence? Of course. It's a very long record, clocking in at under 50 minutes, surprisingly. The closest comparison would be to the earlier Beausoleil records I posted, with a bit of a rougher edge, or perhaps fellow kebekers Le Temps. Some really nice acoustic guitar work appears near the end of side 1 and it's unfortunate the band couldn't link these together into a suite of sorts. There is a kind of d-i-y quality here with the guitars at times being not just not tight, but downright amateurish. Probably I'm not the only one to find this more than a bit charming. I also really like the use of recorders and harmonicas for that real teen-band sound.

Coverart: a drawing of musical instruments as spaceships--? I can't help but quote from Spinal Tap: "there's a fine line between clever and stupid". The back cover is really hilarious too for its DIY quality. Check out those doodley drawings under the tracklist.

On track 12 if you notice some loud bumps in the background that sound like the steps of bigfoot himself, it's my three-year old Julian arranging his Thomas wooden railroad track from his bedroom to my feet at the record player and I apologize for this, what you won't hear luckily is me gradually losing my voice telling him to stop stomping over and over. Hey c'mon-- it's not that loud, he's only three.



I've included two samples, an acoustic guitar instrumental and the third track with its crystalline guitarwork recalling CANO, it sounds almost like it could've been a hit.