AU-DELÀ DU DÉLIRE

This is Ange's third record and that one people seems to like most and sure it has it's moments of splendor. It was released in 1974 two years after the band's debut and on the peak of its career. Like Le Cimetière des Arlequins, Au-Delà Du Délire has an artistic and very beautiful cover work with a farmer trying to cultivate the desert. This album features more musicians than before. Here we have Jean Michel Brezovar (guitar, vocals), Christian Decamps(keyboards, vocals), Francis Decamps(keyboards, vocals), Daniel Haas(bass, guitar), Gerald Jelsch(drums), Eric Bibonne(vocals), Michel Lefloch(vocals) and Henry Loustau(violin).

On this record Ange has developed their style but in my opinion too much. I think I prefer the little more dirty and edgy "Cimetière" record or "Caricatures". The first track "Godevin Le Vilain" is one of my favourite Ange track, it's very dramatic and the vocals are som distinct and almost talking/screaming almost like the voice of Peter Hammill. The track alse contains great guitar. "Les Longues Nuits D'Isaac" has a hard and rocky introduction and becomes a dark organ tune, here we alse get this almost screaming theatrical voice. "Si J'Etais Le Messie" is calmer, almost like a poem but feels like an intermission. "Ballade Pour Une Orgie" is more acoustic but a beautiful melody and Ange here plays with the genres. "Exode" concludes the first side with a perverse tune that is great with distinct electric guitar and ends with a drum solo.

Had it just been for the second side, I could have ranked this album higher. "La Bataille de sucre/La Colére des dieux) begins with market organ and then starts the play including phrases and instrumentation with insterest. But it is the two last tracks that really knock me. "Fils de Lumiere" is wonderful with strong organs and song. It is just as dirty I want Ange to be. "Au Delà du Délire" is powerful and very experimental in a good way. That is really a theatre play that grows in the middle and ends up in shining splendor with great instrument work.

This remains a great prog rock album which also is special, nobody sounds like Ange and that is sure a good thing. Excellent addition to any prog rock collection but I prefer their first two records before this.