Perfect Zebras - Mixing with wildlife

L'écoute de Kissing The Pink m'a redonné l'envie de retrouver quelques autres groupes de new wave décalée et de synth-pop aventureuse. Ni une ni deux, mon ami RF, grand amateur et collectionneur de raretés devant l'éternel, sort de sa hotte ce LP, le premier du groupe, sorti en 1982, pour mon plus grand bonheur.
Je pose le disque sur la platine, avec un brin de crainte, mais la magie opère à nouveau, presque intacte, malgré l'écoute de centaines de nouveautés passionnantes apparues depuis et toutes prêtes à ringardiser Paul Robertson et son groupe.
Revoici les rythmes d'anciennes ethnies africaines "In for the kill", les jeux d'emulator et de vocalises soprano doublées de voix vocoderisée de "I don't dream anymore" ou encore les syncopes frustes de "Stand by the Shangri-La", ornées par le sax de Terry Stephens. Encore une merveille oubliée !

01 Touching My Heart Again (4:18)
02 Blonde Boys In Blue Denim (5:01)
03 I Don't Dream Anymore (6:16)
04 Love's An Illusion (3:34)
05 In For The Kill (4:20)
06 Running With Zebras (4:59)
07 Another Love Story (3:43)
08 Man Or Machine (4:00)
09 Stand By For Shangri-La (3:30)
10 Terrorists (6:17)
Bonus:
11 Touching My Heart Again (Razormaid)

Perfect Zebras made two albums. They were just another haughty "synth-pop" band amongst many others. Nobody wants to remember them. However Paul Robertson, like Mark Hollis, was a prodigious and exceptionnaly gifted songwriter...I'm claiming a compulsory rehabilitation !!! Much funkier than the second album (" like A Certain Ratio" as one of my friends said), just a few examples: the fantastic Tom Tom Clubesque song "Man Or Machine" and "Running With Zebras": as an ancient african tribe hits the rhythms, or another pearl "I Don't Dream Anymore": tight rhythms with amazing soprano aria, and "Another Love Story" where the guys playing Fun Boy Three-like music in a faster way! Wonderful music!!They are at their brilliant peak from the beginning till the end!! Quotation from MUSIC BLOG OF SALTYKA AND HIS FRIENDS