FRANCIS DÉCAMPS

"L'inattible" for the darkly progressive fresco made of keyboard flights and whispered phrases; like in the time of Ange d'antan with a metronomic and stroboscopic bass synth; a bit of Louis Jouvet to disturb, the diatonic accordion like that of François de Pigalle, a bit of Poulbot in the corner of the chorus; six minutes and the heavy guitar riff surprises; in the first third the accordion juggles helped by the evanescent and angelic synth; fourteen minutes and this beat which will be the musical base on all the titles, which scares me, too violent; this space then returns to the organ, phew; the spoken ending takes me back to the last albums of Gérard Manset who had given preference to phrasing rather than singing, premonitory outro with a "take good care of yourself". "My worst nightmare" where we return to the Angel of the 80s with synths; a phrasing with the accordion on alternative rock boosted with ultra-bass, the one that the progueux hated; a fusion mix that leaves you speechless with certain raw words, we don't change with the Decamps.

"The peace of the meninges" for the play on words, the gypsy atmosphere, the rhythmic, festive orchestration; words like François Lazaro could send us very far too; the Afghan break when things are heating up over there, the title coming out of the musical drawers, changing the atmosphere; the dub behind very/too modern anyway. "Hymne aux progueux" with the slightly heavy intro; the angelic speech starts on the ballad, sax or sample of Francis' keyboards still so soft; it drifts on a delightful prog break where time did not exist; text break listen it's for you, it comes from prog, stop at four and a half minutes the angelic riff snub is magnificent. The prog space continues on the accordion, another Japanese space, very melting this one, just to imagine that he will perhaps play reggae, folk song, samba in another time. The impression that Francis allows himself to phrase like his brother which is a guarantee of quality and respect; a well-made piece in fact because no bass. "The foot" lasts the intro even if the jingle bells comes to coax; phrasing accentuating the book to read for adults; the most this marshmallow accordion which vibrates your scattered hair; his foot would be to get out of this angelic straitjacket in which he was too tidy? The hyper bass synth is aggressive. It's up to you to dive in or not but the end smells good of the "madman" of 84, oh just 40 years old. "Question of point of view" with a sermon on the current debilitated life and its schizoid social networks; a real damning observation on a melancholic ballad; should we not end it but if by moving away from these media and choosing one's own way of life; Francis enjoys himself on these choirs sampled in the 10CC sauce.

Francis Décamps changes course, this opus surprises with its modern tone, its embellished words and the disconcerting atmosphere. originally on Progcensor. (3.5)

Probably the biggest issue for me is that I am a typical pom and only understand English, and this album is not only in French, but I also get the impression that the lyrics are extremely important given the focus that is provided on the vocals. That then leads to the next issue, I don't think that Francis is a very good singer although there is no doubting his keyboard skills. There are flashes when this album really works, but for the most part I found this a struggle. No doubt there will be plenty of people who will explain that I don't know I am missing, but while there are some times when I convince myself that this is worth 3 *'s, I know in my hearts that it is only worth 2 as the biggest thing it has going for it is that it is less than 40 minutes long. Not something to which I will be readily returning.

While Ange's familiar Theatrical Prog style was slowly fading away towards the 80's, Decamps' album is some sort of reedition of the typical French dramatic school of prog akin to ANGE, MONA LISA or SYNOPSIS.''Droit vers le soleil'' is a fantastic opener with superb melodies, plenty of moog solos and nice melodramatic vocals by Francis, very inspiring and retro-sounding.The following ''Malediction'' is more-guitar oriented with a few nice leads and solos, always within the typical ANGE atmosphere, and a good synth performance by Francis at the end.The long ''Canicule'' is an attempt by Decamps on Orchestral Prog with beautiful, cinematic string arrangements and a couple of pure Classical parts thrown in supported by a great rhythm section.One of the nicest examples of this man's composing skills.The 10-min. ''Amedee le mal maudit'' is as closest as it gets to ANGE.Symphonic Rock of pure delight, filled with opening harpsichord, organ waves and great moog solos, with a light Folk vibe here and there, theatrical vocals by Francis Decamps and dramatic sections centered around great guitar and keyboard work.Simply great.The closing ''Apocalypse'' opens in a very calm mood.Acoustic guitars, whispering instead of vocals and light dreamy keyboards.But soon they will leave their place to a grandiose keyboard-based orchestral theme to lead the track along the very end.

Thanks to Musea Records the album has seen a CD reissue and everyone into theatrical Orchestral/Symphonic Rock with plenty of interesting guitar and keyboard moves should simply purchase this one.Nice stuff, highly recommended.

The first three of the five tracks are good, but not great. Droit Vers Le Soleil and Canicule are both light symphonic prog pieces, while Malédiction is more of a psychedelic song. On all three of these tracks the music is good, but the entire experience of the songs are lowered by DeCamp's overly emotive, and sometimes off-key vocals.

The final two tracks are where the real value comes in. Amédée Le Mal Maudit is a renaissance period symphonic piece, and reminds me a bit of classic Gryphon. And Amédée Le Mal Maudit is a more modern sounding symphonic piece, with a bit of experimental mixed in.

Three three star and two four star songs averages the album to three stars.

The Ange connection is an automatic plus in my books and I was glad when I got this album. An album some regards as a classic album from France. Well, I have heard better and more distinct albums from France than this one. And by the way, this is Francis Decamps debut album.

This being a debut album, but probably the fifth or so album Francis recorded (the others with Ange), it has some typical debut album ills. In short, Francis seems unsure which road to take. Pop ? Rock ? .... or continue the course staked out as a part of Ange ? The result sounds like a compromise. A bit of a muddle. At least; at the three opening songs Droit Vers Le Soleil, Malédiction and Canicule. All of them pretty light hearted. Not that anything from France is light hearted. The music is slightly theatrical pop/rock with a lot of folk music connotations. Fine enough, but hardly good songs. Even though they are pretty long. Canicule clocks in at over nine minutes.

Then the album takes a bit of a turn to the left and goes into more, much more theatrical symphonic prog. Amédée Le Mal Maudit is a ten minutes melodic, theatrical symphonic epic which winds itself into my heart. Well, close to my heart at least. Great song which will make any Ange fan happy. The same goes for the slightly shorter and more compact final track Apocalypse which has a great crescendo aka Keith Emerson. Another great song.

In other words, this is not a classic album by any means. But fans of Ange and/or French prog rock should most definate check out this album.

3.5 stars