ALORS JOUE!

This 2011 album is the second release from the band put together by Francis Décamps (ex- Ange), and there is a huge difference between this and the solo album which followed the following year, as Francis should have stuck to his convictions and instead of going back over very old ground should instead have concentrated on the new material as this is a interesting piece of work. As with his other work, all of the vocals are in French, but it isn't nearly as big an issue here as the music is just so powerful. This is classic 70's symphonic progressive rock with strong keyboards and guitars. The large use of extended mellotron chords does mean that this could well have been released 40 or 40 years ago and it wouldn't have sounded out of place, so if Francis was attempting to recreate music from days gone by then he has definitely achieved it.

The vocals are still an issue for me, and provide a harsher edge which definitely gives them an edge, which is just too raw for my liking, and the production isn't nearly as polished as it could be and the result is something that could well have been recorded live in the studio and it would have benefited from some additional finesse. But, if I had to choose between this and the later solo album then this would win everytime.