Universal Energy (1977)

You often get the question which is one's favorite album or artist. Usually you're be able to answer quite reasonably, even if the answer can vary depending on the day or be kind of vague and indistinct. A more difficult question to answer is which one is the worst album in the collection.

It was the mid 90s and I was a student in Lund, Sweden. A good friend was visiting, we chilled, talked and listened to good music. When it was time for a new record, my friend suddenly asked me to play the worst album I had. What an unexpected twist. I was forced to think in completely new ways and to really go outside the box, as one say. The result of this intensive thinking was that I put Universal Energy on the turntable.

A somewhat unfair judgement, I would say today.

Universal Energy is a French album which on some places online is described as cosmic disco. Now, that sounds really cool. The men behind the record are Bernard Estardy (aka Le Baron) and Jean-Pierre Bourtayre. Both are described in the French version of Wikipedia, for those who like language exercises. I honestly don't know how famous they are outside France. It's synthesizer based, mostly instrumental music, created almost 40 years ago. That means of course the sound is different than today, for better or worse. The nice thing is that in its best moments, electronic music of the 70s sounds really cool, a sound many artists today are trying to recreate. In its worst moments, though, it sounds cheap and really lousy.

Bernard Estardy

Jean-Pierre Bourtayre

I guess Universal Energy offers both. Even if the album is often described as disco, not everything is danceable. Some more fast paced numbers are quite cool and groovy, with exactly the sound many wish for today, for example the opening titletrack. Then we have a song like Christmas for Space, which is quieter and where the sound is not really working. In this song you get the only vocal element in form of a robotic voice wishing us a Merry Christmas, and some children's voices that create an somewhat psychedelic atmosphere.

I have seen the album sold for sums up to $100 online, which means I made a nice investment. I paid $1 for it in the late 80's (the price tag is still there). The reason I bought it was that I interpreted the title as cosmic energy, and thus the album would contain cosmic, druggy music. And that was what made me so disappointed and got me to label it as the worst record in my collection - it was not the floaty, cosmic music I had hoped for. And in the late 80s, and in the vision of the teenage Markus, the music the album offered was not very hot.

This is not the worst record I have in my collection, far from it. Today, I think it's kind of a cool album and quite groovy, with its stylish electronic 70s sound. Playing it on the stereo, I find myself suddenly at Studio 54.

I can add that I've always thought that the person on the cover is riding a motorcycle. The helmet on the head and the left hand's position suggest it. But when I now for the first time in 25 years take a closer look at the cover, I see that he doesn't. I don't know what he's doing or who he is, but he doesn't drive a motorcycle. I must say it's probably on of the ugliest covers in the collection.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Universal Energy 5:52
2. Space Energy 10:08

Side B
1. Disco Energy (I) 6:53
2. Christmas for Space 6:34
3. Disco Energy (II) 2:57