CARICATURES

An excellent debut album by the french symphonic group Ange. I am surprised and amazed of this record. Debut albums don't use to be so great. So after I have heard this I claim Ange started on their top. I am glad people who have Spotify now can enjoy this dramatic music."Caricatures" was released in 1972 and Ange was made up by Jean Michel Brezovar (solo guitar, acoustic guitar, flute and vocals), Gerald Jelsch (drums, percussion), Daniel Haas (bass), Christian Decamps (lead vocals, organ and piano) and Francis Decamps (even more organs). With five men mastering many instruments the chance for this being a great prog record is big.

I wrote two of the played organ, you can hear that in the music where organs have a big involvement. These instruments make the music feel important and big. Yes Ange is pretentious enough for me. A glimpse of their splender and the more experimental side can you find in the closer "Biafra 80 -final". Here they show how they manage every instrument perfectly. There are no bad tracks on this disc. "Biafra 80" has a strong melodical command and a rough electric guitar. The heavy organs are exactly what is so special with Ange. "Tels Quels" welcomes the excellent singer Christian Decamps who sings, talks and screams as he was an actor on a sophisticated theatre. A very artistic composition. "Dignité" is among the best tracks here. Little happier and contains what I think feels like music from a medieval market place. It starts with a marsh and this dramaturgic piece also features very good flute work. "Le Soir du diable" is more modest with special drums. "Caricatures", the title track, starts with reciting and thereafter screaming. I don't understand the language, which is bad for me beacause it seams to be a great language and the whole song is a great composition with many phases. Aftor four minutes it becomes faster and the song starts finaly at ten minutes. I love his voice and how dramatic he was.

As you can see I have just good things to name about this album. To be honest I can't find anything bad with it. I can not even see (or hear) a lack or something later gained in their music. I can really recommend this album by Ange. It is original also, this sounds just like Ange!