Search - Morse Code :: Marche Des Hommes

Good prog rock from Quebec

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 05/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Morse Code started off in the early '70s as Morse Code Transmission with two albums. They were obviously trying to aim for the Anglo-Canadian market by singing in English. Those albums tended to be more on the hard rock side, but by 1975 the band was simply called Morse Code and without a doubt were now a full-blown prog rock band with the release of La Marche des Hommes, on Capitol Records. The English vocals were dropped in favor of French. Keyboards more dominate, and Christian Simard tends to use a lot of Hammond organ, Mellotron, clavinet, and synths. The group also consisted of bassist Michel Vallée, guitarist and flautist Daniel Lemay, and drummer Raymond Roy, with Simard and Lemay also handling vocals.



There's no getting around the music was by now highly influenced by the likes of Genesis, but with that French influence getting compared with the likes of Ange. The vocals are all in French. In fact, if you are a fan of such prog band coming from France like Ange, Mona Lisa and the likes, you won't have a problem warming up to this album. The album also boasted a hit single with the instrumental "Peacock", a great piece complete with Mellotron and clavinet. This gives you all the reminders of a mid '70s television theme song. Given the feel of this piece, you could imagine real strings being used, but it's nice to know that it was Christian Simard and his Mellotron instead! Unsurprisingly this got released as a single, the single version can also be found on the CD reissue of this album. With the exception of the opening cut, around the 10 minute range, most of the cuts are around 5-6 minute range. I am always a bit surprised to find stuff like this on major labels, like Sloche on RCA or latter-day Harmonium on CBS (and of course Morse Code on Capitol), but it's nice to see stuff like that happened back in the '70s.



This is a nice album to have for those into Genesis and the French prog scene in general."