MORSE CODE

The progressive rock scene in Anglophone Canada during the 70's wasn't particularly robust. Rush is the most well known band to attempt to apply English progressive sensibility to their sound. On the contrary, for Francophone's, was given a huge welcome to the progressive rock. It's very curious how English progressive rock became most popular in Canada in the Province of Quebec where most people speaks French. Certainly, that is why many of those bands chose to sing in French, thus creating a platform that made French lyrics acceptable and even desirable.

So, it was in that context that appeared in the 70's many progressive rock bands in Quebec like Offenbach, Morse Code Transmission (latter Morse Code), Octobre, Contraction, Et Cetera, Pollen, Incubus (latter ExCubus), L'Orchestre Sympatique, Conventum, Toubabou, Harmonium, Garolou, Sloche and Maneige.

Morse Code is one of the best Quebecois prog rock bands of the 70's, alongside with Harmonium, Pollen and Maneige. Their origin goes back to 1967, when bassist Vallée and drummer Roy founded Les Maîtres. Following the recruitment of keyboardist and singer Simard in 1968, and then Jocelyn Julien on guitar, the band made their first steps performing rehearsals for The Beatles and The Bee Gees. Turning cheerfully in all the trendy clubs of his city and province, the combo begins to forge its own repertoire, and modifies their patronymic in Morse Code Transmission at the request of their record company which publishes, in 1971, their first eponymous debut album. That opus is a collection of short and commercial plays, sung in English. Continuing in this direction, after the replacement of Julien by Bernard Tapin, the band offers in 1972 a double album "Morse Code Transmission II". But, it was not until 1975 that the group really took off under the shortened name of Morse Code with the superb "La Marche Des Hommes", entirely sung in French.

The line up on the album is Daniel Lemay (vocals, flute and guitars), Christian Simard (vocals and keyboards), Michel Vallée (vocals and bass) and Raymond Roy (drums and percussion).

"La Marche Des Hommes" has seven tracks. "La Marche Des Hommes" is the title track. It shows impressive songwriting skills from Simard, often with the instrumental and vocal sections based partly in the same themes, giving the track a feel of continuity despite its complexity and many chord changes. This is the great highlight on the album. "Le Pays D'Or" is a ballad with one of the finest melodies on the album, featuring some unusually authentic sounding mellotron strings. It provides a strong contrast to "La Marche Des Hommes". Some may like it more than others, but I like it. "La Cérémonie De Minuit" shows further Simard's clear influences from Tony Banks in his keyboard playing. It features acoustic guitar and alternates between a simple but space rock styled part and this acoustic part with a wavering Hammond sound. This is another great inclusion on the album. "Cocktail" is an instrumental track. It's a great sounding track with flute. The bass, the mellotron and drums are so impressive too. It contains an excellent catchy mix of music. This was a hit at the radio and one of a TV program took it for their theme song. "Une Goutte De Pluie" is the band in really laidback and relaxed mood, pleasant and moody. It's a delicate and endearing ballad highlighting Simard's emotive vocal delivery and light piano work. This is another good ballad. "Une Goutte De Pluie" sounds nicely but it's probably, in my humble opinion, the weakest track on the album. "Qu'Est-Ce Que T'As Compris?" is quite the opposite, showing their upbeat and rocking side, but still wrapped up with the same symphonic progressive arrangements as the rest of the songs. This is an all out rock number showcasing each member's strengths. It has been aired many times from every radio station of the province of Quebec, and probably it's still aired nowadays. "Problème" is a grandiose ballad but with a modest length at only two minutes, which was a pity that it was not a bit longer. It shows more of the band's softer but powerful side. This is a good song mix with a lot of mellotron and the catchy refrain on "Problème" is very soothing too. "Problème" closes out the album properly in a very calm and catchy way.

Conclusion: "La Marche Des Hommes" is an impressive statement for Morse Code. Leaving in the past their psych influences, Morse Code return in mid 70's with a bright symphonic prog album with careful guitar work, intelligent vocal parts, dominant organ sounds and some mellotron touches, not far from what Genesis, Ange and many other prog bands were creating a few years earlier. This is an excellent example of Quebecois symphonic progressive rock music. "La Marche Des Hommes" contains all the right moves and all of the elements sure to please any 70's progressive rock fan. The music was highly influenced by Genesis but with that French influence getting compared with the likes of Ange. The vocals are all in French. In fact, if you are a fan of such prog bands coming from France like Ange, Mona Lisa or Atoll, you won't have any problem in warming up to this album. It's a highly recommended album for all prog lovers.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

The instrumental opener 'Précréation' has those sharp Tony Banks -like organ notes and also a lot of room for guitar and flute. A promising start, if not yet anything very significant. The second track of under 5 minutes approaches more epic atmosphere on the unsung parts while the vocal parts stay less inspired. The brief instrumental 'Nuage' concentrates on the circulating organ melody without really taking off. 'L'eau tonne' (notice the word play; l'automne, autumn) is a melodic and light-hearted song, a curious mix of proggy instrumentation and a composition reminding of entertainment vocal music. For the vocals, I have to say that they lack any charisma. The hi-hi-hi-hi and ha-ha-ha-ha in the song 'Des hauts et des ha!' i actually irritating. Frankly, up to this point the album would hardly be worth three stars.

The real treat comes on the second side of the LP, the three-part title epic. In the sung first movement an instrumental passage already shows glimpses of something more impressive, but the song per se feels a bit uninspired. The rest of the epic wanders deeper into progressive unpredictability and wide dynamics. Now the little vocal parts succeed to increase the interest unlike earlier on the album. This is a pure prog epic in the vein of 'Supper's Ready', even if it naturally pales in comparison to such masterpiece. Oooh, that Mellotron sound! The final movement is the clear highlight, being very progressive in itself. A beautiful, meditative section starring Mellotron and flute is followed by a return to the grandiosity.

If only the whole album was as good as the second side... Unfortunately it isn't, and I feel that three stars is the most honest rating I can give. If you enjoy the French prog with the Genesis influences (Ange, Mona Lisa, ...), Morse Code is definitely worth checking out.

Morse Code's second album under the abbreviated moniker (formerly known as Morse Code Transmission) sees the band moving further into symphonic prog. Already on 'La marche des hommes', that chunky Rickenbacker bass sound was prominently in the mix, most obviously on the 11-minute title track. Here it stands out on the whole album. Add to that lots of Mellotron, some seventies synthesizer, some Steve Howe-inspired guitar runs, and a 26- minute title track, and things start to seem like a French Canadian Yes has been born. Though not exactly a clone (that award goes to Cathedral), when your music is this similar to Yes you have to expect comparisons. And yes, there are enough similarities to merit those comparisons here.

But let's take a look at the album for what Morse Code put into it. For starters, I find Morse Code to be a little heavier than Yes. Think 'Heart of the Sunrise' without the hurried intensity or parts of 'The Revealing Science of God' without that thematic feeling. The opening track 'Précréation' has some good melodies in it and works well as an introduction to the title track which comes later. There's some classically influenced organ playing and flute as the piece moves through different musical themes over the course of its five minutes. It's a very good start to the album.

'Qu'est-ce t'es v'nu faire ici' is quite different from anything Yes ever did and brings us closer to the previous album. That bass is still in there loud and proud, but the vocal style is softer for the verses and the guitar and organ more rock than most of classic Yes. 'Nuage' might at first bring to mind Rick Wakeman's 'Cans and Brahms' from 'Fragile' but this keyboard instrumental also brings in the guitar, bass, and drums in two parts. 'L'eau tonne' also keeps the band fairly deep in Quebec prog waters, perhaps bringing them closer to contemporaries Octobre or Dionysos, namely because of Christian Simard's strong French vocal (lower in register than Jon Anderson in case you were wondering).

'Des hauts et des ha!..." begins with some wonderful almost ominous and foreboding music and sounds like this is going to be the best track so far. But it turns a bit silly as Simard sings ''ee 'ee 'ee 'ee' 'ah 'ah 'ah 'oh 'oh 'oh' This passes and we return to some excellent progressive rock with a very active bass and a synthesizer solo followed by organ and more synthesizer. It works wonderfully until that laughing bit returns. Too bad because the music is tops. A short and simple musical number (sounds like it's from a musical!) follows and passes quickly thankfully. I'm not into 'De tous les pays du monde'.

This brings us to the 26:17 title track. Here's where the Yes comparisons will bite as surely as bedbugs. As with any long epic, it takes a few listens to digest. My conclusion is that it has a lot of terrific moments and good variety but doesn't reach the heights of 'Close to the Edge' or 'The Revealing Science of God' but is still better than some of the stuff on 'Tales from Topographic Oceans'. Four out of five stars for an epic over 20 minutes and home to a number of musical highlights on the album.

Two more tracks (bonus tracks on the ProgQuebec release, I think) remain to conclude the album: 'Punch', a funky and punchy short instrumental, and 'Image', a little more rocking but still slow and steady with a synthesizer that mimics an accordion.

It's hard to say which album I prefer of the two that I have by this band, but there's enough solid work on here to be worthy of adding to a prog collection if you're okay with French lyrics. If anything comes as a drawback, I find that the music introduces some excellent sounds that promise prog heaven but in the end something falls short and true bliss is rarely discovered. Still, this album has me feeling confident enough to buy the next album, 'Je suis le temps'. I believe that among these three albums an excellent playlist of songs can be achieved.

The title track opens the album and introduces a heavy prog rock sound not unlike a French-speaking cousin of Uriah Heep. Electric guitar, Hammond organ, piano, synthesizer, bass and drums along with lead vocals by Christian Simard carry the song through its harder rock course but not without interludes of piano and synthesizer-led instrumentals. About halfway through, however, the song takes an abrupt turn into Yes territory with a loud buzzing bass and more symphonic prog approach. The song is completely different with harmony vocals singing each line to the same melody in between lines of music and more short instrumental passages. There's a break with a long and slowly building passage led by organ and drums as bass and guitar join. This part releases back into the second part of the song with that loud buzzing bass. The whole track of 11:16 comes to a rather quick ending. This is a pretty excellent track by which to be introduced to the band.

"Le pays d'or" is a short piano-based song that is slow and light and though not particularly memorable to me, it provides a strong contrast to "La marche des hommes". It does include a bit of Mellotron and some scratchy, straining, weepy guitar as the song builds in emotional power. Some may like it more than others.

"La ceremonie de minuit" features acoustic guitar and alternates between a simple but space rock-styled part and this acoustic part with a wavering Hammond sound. A good inclusion for this album.

"Cocktail" is a grooving danceable instrumental piece with a flute solo and an uplifting melody played first on Mellotron and then on synthesizer. The piece has such a groove to it that the record company had them remix it so that it could be released as a dance single for clubs. I don't find any extreme differences between the two versions (both are included in the Prog Quebec reissue of this album) and simply enjoy it for its very blatant mid-seventies sounds.

The final three tracks see the band continuing to write with different approaches: "Une goutte de pluie" sounding a lot like 69/70 era Pink Floyd, slow and dreamy with organ and piano but some flute too; "Qu'est-ce t'as compris" another grooving rocker with a great proggy intro but a rather simple song melody with simply grooving rock; and "Probleme" which sees more of the band's softer but powerful side

This is quite a noble effort, using a pretty full but standard spectrum of seventies prog instruments: flute, organ, Mellotron, synthesizer, and acoustic and electric guitars along with a lead vocalist and harmony and backing vocals. The album shows a strong variety of songs without being incongruous. The only points I find detracting from a truly excellent album are the unfortunate standard rock number that "Qu'est-ce t'as compris" collapses into and the somewhat forgettable "Le pays d'or".

Though frequently compared to Genesis, I feel Morse Code are less like Genesis here than they may be to some other bands other reviewers have mentioned.

An excellent addition to any seventies rock collection and a very good addition to any prog collection. Three and a half stars rounded up.

The sound of Morse Code was no more enigmatic.They had fully become a bombastic Symphonic Rock act with strong GENESIS, YES, E.L.P. and ANGE influences, making space for long instrumental themes and delivering plenty of poetical moments.The first side of the LP contains six tracks of short length, that explore the Classical inspirations and complex arrangements of Rock music, based on organ interludes, grandiose Mellotron showering, smooth but complicated guitar playing ala STEVE HOWE by Daniel Lemay and deep bass work by Vallee.The addition of the theatrical vocals make the ANGE comparisons quite reasonable, while a strong array of keyboards, including synthesizers, offers impressive textures full of melodic interludes and adventurous solos.The lack of personality is still an issue though.

The flipside of the original LP contains one of the longest Progressive Rock suites ever writen by a band of the Classic Prog era, the three-part ''Procreation'', clocking at over 26 minutes.The first part is a nice mix of GENESIS and GREENSLADE stylings with dominant use of Hammond organs but also plenty of dual keyboard themes, backed up by the jazzy guitar moves of Lemay and the nice, lyrical voice of Simard.The second part is closer to a cross between E.L.P. and YES, full of complex guitar chords, haunting Mellotron washes and striking Classical interludes on Hammond organ, while the vocal parts obtain an extremely romantic atmosphere.Entering the third and longer part the listener will meet series of instrumental interplays, again with an evident YES vibe on the bass and keyboard parts but with a more HACKETT-like touch in the smoother guitar lines, which will slowly lead to the romantic, dreamy and deeply atmospheric ending of the track.Simard's powerful Mellotron and Vallee's pounding bass open the gates to a YES-like outro with wordless vocals and strong symphonic-inclined musicianship with organs, bass and calm guitars in the forefront.

This is an excellent example of well-crafted Symphonic Rock by one of Quebec's major acts.Almost flawless and pretty professional musicianship with nice instrumental ideas and a very rich sound, that is being hurt by the endless references to the major names of the scene.Still, this is a must have for all Sympho-maniacs ot there.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

For the instrumental part, which is less original, but again very good and very well performend, the influences seem to to be early Genesis, Yes and other prog acts of the 70´s like Nektar or Eloy. One of my favorite tracks is Cocktail with its joyful rhythm, great flute lines and creative use of the clavinet. But clearly there are no weak tracks and the band shows their versatility and ease of creating catchy songs. Nothing too adventurous, of course, but still unique and very good. Production is top notch.

Conclusion: if you like something different, but not too spaced out, with fine mixtures of styles and a strong french element, this band from Quebec might be for you. I was quite pleased to find this album. Four strong stars.

It is my understanding that this is the first foray into symphonic prog from this band and their third album overall. They started out as a space rock band and their past is pretty obvious on this album too. The music on this album though is a mix of space rock, The Nice, ELP, Genesis...... well, symphonic prog. Add some PFM & other vintage RPI influences too and you get this album.

The music is tangents based with some guitars included too. The vocals are pretty good and they are thankfully sung in French. It is always nice with some variations from the usual fare of English vocals.

The quality throughout this album is good throughout. There is no real outstanding pieces of music here though. But I suspect this album is a late bloomer which will only reveal itself after ten listening sessions and some years. Hence, it has been put in my colletion of late bloomer and this review may be altered in five years time. But as it is now, I cannot really say this is a great album. It has a lot of good melody lines and clever hooks though. But not throughout the album. It is a very good album though and somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

3.5 stars

The highlights of this CD to me are the two last tracks: De Tous Les Pays du Monde is an early Genesis carbon copy alright, yet I loved it because it is so well written and performed. The 25 minute title track is another one that grabed my atention because it followed the symphonic rock cliches in almost every single aspect. It should be a great work, but although I found nothing wrong in it, it also failed to generate any real excitement or enthusiasm. It´s the kind of song you like it when you hear but you don´t actually want to listen to it all over again once it is finish, if you know what I mean. There are far better symphonic epics out there, specially at the time of this release. Small wonder they never really made it.

Production is quite good and the my CD copy sounds very clear and crisp.

Rating: I found Procréation very hard to give a fair rating. The musicians are very skillful and if you like old fashioned symphonic prog rock chances are you might like this record. After several spins over a month period I found that the CD has its merits. It is good, alright. Sometimes even very good, but not enough to warrant an excelent (4 star) rating like many of my fellow reviewers did. So I guess it is a matter of taste. Listen and judge for yourself.

"La Marche Des Hommes" opens with spacey synths before the organ takes over and powerful outbursts come and go until they stay as the vocals join in before 1 1/2 minutes. Mellotron floods in with a calm before 3 minutes. It's building with vocals and drums.The pulsating organ before 5 minutes with the guitar is very GENESIS-like. Love the sound before 6 1/2 minutes with vocals and mellotron. It returns later around 10 minutes. Beautiful. "Le Pays D'or" opens with piano and reserved vocals. It's fuller 1 1/2 minutes in.The mellotron and guitar are outstanding after 2 1/2 minutes to end it.

"La Ceremonie De Minuit" opens with intricate guitar as drums and vocals join in with pulsating organ. Great sound before 2 minutes as it gets fuller.The guitar starts to solo over top 3 1/2 minutes in. "Cocktail" is a great sounding track with flute. The bass and drums are so impressive. Mellotron blows in too. "Une Goutte De Pluie" has this light beat with reserved vocals as the organ floats in. A fuller sound 1 1/2 minutes in as the drums get louder and piano and mellotron join in. "Qu'est-Ce Que T'as Compris ?" is more dynamic with drums and bass standing out. Vocals and mellotron before a minute as it settles. It kicks back in quickly with organ that starts to pulsate.The guitar after 2 1/2 minutes is excellent. Organ's turn a minute later. So good. "Probleme" opens with the drums building then the vocals, mellotron and bass join in. Guitar follows.It settles late to end it.

The album cover is as stunning as the music.