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Francis Décamps - Histoire De Fou CD (album) cover

HISTOIRE DE FOU

Francis Décamps

 

Crossover Prog

3.43 | 18 ratings

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toroddfuglesteg
3 stars Francis Decamps was one of the founding members of Ange, the best prog band France has ever produced. And to you howling wolves out there; yes I know Magma too is from France.

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

toroddfuglesteg | 3/5 |

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