Maneige - Les Porches (1975) [FLAC]

Maneige's second album followed surprisingly quickly a short time later the same year as their debut. "Les Porches" showed that they hadn't lowered their ambitions, and was another solid slice of challenging and quite unique progressive rock. The 19-minute "Les Porches de Notre-Dame" dominates the first side. This multi-part suite starts with a very mellow and low-key overture with clarinet, glockenspiel and Bergeron's melodic flute as the only instruments. Three other segments then follow it where piano, flute, guitar and bells play some wonderful and atmospheric melodies. These starts to slowly build up to a very emotional finale with some lyrics sung by guest Raoul Duguay, and this is undoubtedly the best of the VERY few vocal passages that can be found in Maneige's music. The whole band then kicks in and closes the suite with an intense jam where trumpet, saxophone and guitar fights for the solo spot. After this, side 1 is closed with the short and very symphonic "La Grosse Torche" that features some strings and pointed partly forward to the next album. Most of the second side is taken up by the 15-minute "Les Adventures de Saxinette et Clarophone" where the band's influences from jazz shines clearly through. It's also much more upbeat than the first side, and demonstrates the band's extensive use of various percussive instruments, such as xylophone, vibes and bongos. The very last part of the suite reminds me slightly of the French band Carpe Diem. The album closes with the two-part "Chromo" that is close to avant-garde with some weird twists and turns where the flute again takes the leading role.

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