VOS VOISINS

Vos Voisins (Your Neighbours) was an early prog rock band from Québec, Canada that released a single album in 1971 while much of the Rock Progressif Québécois was still caught up in the heavy psychedelic haze period and had yet to blossom. Though their album reflects the heavy guitar rock and organ of the day, there are gentler piano songs, too.

The first track, "Voisins (Mon Chum)" is a humorous hard and grooving track with vocalist J Perron gradually getting more theatrical (and comical) in his vocal antics. Any song that opens with the line (in French) "Two thousand beavers" can't be a serious song. Easily a favourite of mine for entertainment value!

"Sous la lune" is a surprising song to follow because it's a beautiful piano ballad sung as a duet with a female vocalist. Then "L'Instrumental" (no translation necessary) is guitar and organ rock split between an uplifting and early prog instrumental and a more standard heavy psychedelic instrumental.

The tracks appear to alternate between hard and soft as track four, "Tania", is another delicate piano number with a female vocalist joining. Partway through the songs brings in rock guitar, organ and Mellotron and wraps up rather powerfully.

The theatrics and humour return for the suspenseful "La monstre de la Main / The Main Monster", another heavy psych song but with a theatrical bent. Along with the opening track, I have to say these guys are good at this kind of music. The instrumental section is pretty heavy with a keyboard solo.

Side two continues after the monster with a surprisingly not quite as heavy but progressively leaning song "Y'a juste de t'ca" with some Beatle-esque moments as well as classical piano. Then the album closes with "Le 3/4 de l'archveque" which is a piano led instrumental with a vocal chorus. It is a pretty and uplifting piece of music.

One should note that the original cover was actually a spoof of the Montreal magazine Âllo Police! but because of the likeness, they band had to hastily come up with a new cover which is the one here on PA. The ProgQuebec reissue restores the original cover and includes two bonus tracks of which "Le couer su l'cant" is a folksy piano and clean electric guitar piece with Mellotron and a backing vocal chorus and "Dou-ra-ra-dou", an upbeat rock number carrying over from the flower power days.

It's an interesting album but might not appeal to some because for a prog album it still carries a lot of heavy psych with it and some humour that, along with the original cover, could almost make the band seem early punk. It's emerging prog and an early start for the Québec prog scene which wouldn't come to full fruition until around 1975/76. My take is that it's a fun album with some enjoyable music nonetheless.