Maneige - ''Les Porches'' {Canada} [1975] @192 (Quebecois fusion) (vinyl rip)

It is still one of those few masterpieces never re- released on Digital format. I think that this is true for all but two of Maneige's albums. so i posted a vinyl rip.

MANEIGE is probably the Quebec band that epitomizes best the Quebec Prog boom from 74 to 79.
Except for this lone LP where one number is sung, Maneige is an instrumental group that lets you know right from the start that they will take full advantage of this and will not allow you one second of inattention. The group mixes acoustic and electric instrument with such dexterity that they make it look easy and sound simple. NOT SO! Although people will classify this group in the fusion section , this is only partly correct as ther is some jazz & folk, but there is an uncommon percentage of classical music but nothing stolen from the historical composers. This album and the debut as well as the recently released live 74-75 are highly undiscribable melange of all sort of academic musics. Maneige's sound is a cross between Univers Zero and Gentle Giant for the construction complexities but Maneige is so much more melodic and harmonious to your ears, that GG is rather distant cry from them.

Les porches de Notre-Dame, a glorious mixture of Bergeron's delicate flutes and Yves Léonard's contrapunctual bass, and an intense blend of Baroque and progressive folk. As piano gradually takes over, and strings build up, it comes as a surprise to hear the mournful vocals of guest Raoul Duguay execute a passage of passionate pain on Désouverture, which is the fifth segment of the track; it is followed by a superb trombone solo and an all-out rockish jam that is actually my favourite bit of Maneige music ever.

La Grosse Torche is a short lively Baroque instrumental lasting just over a minute, so the rest of the album is essentially the 16 minute excursion entitled Les aventures de saxinette et Clarophone xylophone introduces an exuberant electric piano driven form of jazz-rock that's topped off by the sax and clarinet (as one would expect given the title of the track) ... it's all quite Canterbury in fact. Until that is a vicious biting riff that would make Gentle Giant proud takes over at the 4 minute mark the percussive jam that follows is quite superb, and while the track goes through a number of further mutations it is sax and percussion that occupy centre stage. I must say though that the ending is a tad cheesy. The final track Chromo is a propulsive flute-driven percussion-heavy bit of jazz-rock that foreshadows some of the music on Ni Vent Ni Nouvelle.(compiled from progarchives)

absolutely masterful and orgasmic music.

Maneige - Les Porches:

Link in Comment.