DEUX

When I felt I was scrapping the bottom of the barrel when it comes for prog rock, a few years back I started looking towards the prog scene in Quebec and unearthed a bunch of gems. Harmonium is a bit obvious, perhaps, because even mainstream Quebec society knows who they are. They're that well-known and famous there. Enough for a made for TV movie on them in 2003 (although Serge Fiori was less than happy with the movie and how he and the band was presented, from my understanding). I know Beau Dommage was also very big. Through the years I discovered great stuff from Pollen, Et Cetera, Sloche, Opus 5, and Morse Code. Some of these groups come from folk backgrounds (Harmonium most noted), some of them Gentle Giant influenced (Et Cetera most notable), and others taking from either fusion or the British and French scenes (Morse Code, for example). But there hadn't been a whole lot of electronic acts, and Vincent Dionne and Michel-Georges Brégent is an example, and I'm so glad I discovered them. I started with Deux, which is their second album, which is no surprise, given the title (in cause you didn't know, "deux" is French for "two"). The avant garde leanings of their debut was absent here, going for a more symphonic approach, most particularly on "Le Prophète". They did not sell out in any way, shape or form. This is nothing short of amazing, this album is full of Moog, Orchestron, clavinet, Farfisa organ, and tons of drums and percussion done in that nice '70s fashion I so love. There's even a little Mellotron, some tron flute towards the end of "Le Prophète", but for some strange reason Michel-George Brégent preferred the Orchestron (the Vako Orchestron is a professional grade version of Mattel's Optigan, which runs on flimsy optical discs). It's easy to tell you're hearing an Orchestron because it has a more muddy, scratchy sound to it, and you can hold a note indefinitely. "Campus" has a bit more of a fusion oriented feel to it, I really love how Vincent Dionne's drumming catches up to the pace of the synth sequencer pattern. "Transit Express" has a bit of a Tangerine Dream thing going on with a synth pattern (the synth also sounds like how Cameron Hawkins of FM might have sounded had he recorded an album of electronic music around this time period, rather than the crossover prog FM were doing around this time). As far as I'm concerned, this is rather original electronic music, and I highly recommend this to fans of electronic and prog. I really can't seem to find any fault from this album.