Les Rallizes Denudes

May 30, 2007

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I’ve been thinking for weeks about how I could possibly write about Les Rallizes Denudes. They’re the type of band that once you attempt to try and assign words to their sound, you feel as though you’re only cheapening what they’ve created. If someone forced me to write about them, I could only describe their music as destructively psychedelic noise while at the same time being devastatingly beautiful. Ninety percent of noise loses me, the other ten percent is some of my favorite music. That impossible melody, located in the distortion and feedback, that could never fully be realized with words. The feeling you get after first discovering the Velvets, happens again after listening to Les Rallizes Denudes. Of any band I have read about that is claimed to share similar qualities with the Velvet Underground, Les Rallizes Denudes are the most deserving.

From ‘69:

Les Rallize Denudes - Romance of Black Grief

Les Rallize Denudes - Night of the Assassins

(I recommend listening to the first song during the morning/afternoon and the second song at night)

Update: Download the entire album these came from here. (I usually don’t post whole albums, but with albums that are as impossibly difficult to track down as this and out of print…have at it.)

Their releases have been extremely limited and are mostly available as bootlegs. I believe revolver offers one of the only currently in print Les Rallizes Denudes releases. You can buy it here . (Or seek out their better earlier 60’s stuff online)