JE SUIS LE TEMPS

If Morse Code made a splash with "La Marche Des Hommes", they bowed out rather ignominiously with "Je Suis Le Temps". Overall it is a rather undistinguished pastiche of 1970s rock with a few prog moments, some good, some less so. While first impressions are often misleading in progressive albums, this one doesn't reveal a whole lot more with repeat listens, and certainly not enough payback for the time spent.

The album opens relatively strongly with "C'est Deja Du Passe", even if the boogie-esque vocal sections are redolent of Michel Pagliaro and other contemporaries like Offenbach rather than the contemporary progressive artists. This problem plagues the work of Morse Code. The highlight is the eerie instrumental section in the break. "Berceuses" exhibits all the hallmarks of a good idea gone bad - some fits and starts, finally settling in on an overly long and uninteresting lead guitar section with which to bow out. The peak of the album is the first two tracks on side 2, the rollicking instrumental "Piccadilly Circus", inspired by the band's proximity to the locale during the recording of the album, and the spacey ballad "Sommeil". The title track is the longest and, while not bad, again suffers from facelessness and a general lack of enthusiasm.

Morse Code seems like a band that listened to a lot of British prog of their day but tried to merge it with standard rock and blues, and something, indeed most everything, was lost in transmission.