Cardeilhac - Cardeilhac (Swiss Heavy Progressive 1973)

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An obscure heavy Swiss progressive blending British 60's styles with the typically Teutonic 70's hard-rock sound, notably inspired by Deep Purple, along with some more progressive touches.

Taking their name from a French commune in Haute-Garonne, this Swiss five-piece, heavy progressive band comprised of Rinaldo Häusier (guitars), Denis Angelini (vocals), J-C. Balsinger (bass), Andrö Locher (organ/keyboards) and Gaston Balmer (drums).

Their brief early 70's existence resulted in only one studio album; their poorly produced 1971 eponymous debut, which clearly demonstrated a combined influence of heavy UK proto-prog bands such as Deep Purple with the typically Teutonic 70's hard rock sound, with progressive, and occasionally bluesy touches.

Locher's abilities in bringing the keyboards to the fore, will please fans of ELP, while the chunkier, heavy guitar will bring bands such as The Nice and even Uriah Heep to mind. Ultimately however, their music is considered to have produced little in the way of originality, and nothing is known of the musician's careers after the break up of the band.

This is one of lost bands who only produced one album and after the album was released no one knew where the band or its members were going. The music is more on straight classic rock style in the vein of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad or Leslie Wes's Mountain. I'm sure that my friends who like rock oldies would favor this band. 

The opening track "Pick Up Your Gun" is a straight rocker with a lot of Hammond organ work and it would definitely favor those classic rock lovers. "Everybody" is in similar vein but the music is much more dynamic with excellent electric guitar rhythm work. Vocal quality is excellent. The structure is not like straight rock music as it has many curved melodies with nice breaks demonstrating guitar and guitar solos. "Pushers Dwell" reminds me to Grand Funk Railroad's music with stunning electric guitar fills and solo. 

The band tries to touch the prog style through attractive Hammond organ and guitar opening of "Sadness". The style is much mellower than previous tracks but it has a great classic rock nuance. "She Don't Care" continues the style of oldies rock music with a good combination of bass playing, guitar and organ. "Neutral" is probably the most proggy tune with excellent combination of organ and guitar fills in some bluesy and jazzy styles. The guitar fills are really good.

Overall, it's a good album of vintage straight hard rock with some prog touches. Recording quality is not good, however, it represents the 70's sound and it could be a plus point. Keep on proggin' ..! [progarchives.com]

01. Pick up your gun (5:06) 
02. Everybody (3:24) 
03. Pushers dwell (2:50) 
04. Sadness (6:11) 
05. She don't care (3:59) 
06. Neutral (6:14) 
07. Nightmare (5:35) 
08. Loch Ness (3:23)

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