Porches

This band is mainly known because of their more jazz-rock fusion albums that came after their 3rd album when they changed gear towards a more 'commercial' sound. But the first 3 (this is their 2nd) are really original and more in the classical and progressive style. Lots of percussion instruments (vibraphone, orchestral percussion, etc.) mix easily with piano, keys, gt, drums and bass creating a quite unique canadian version of mid seventies progressive rock. Will probably appeal to fans of groups like genesis and french prog groups, but also to fans more into avant garde side of things. Recommended, & check their 3rd (which i like even more) if you like this one.

While French Canadian music this is perhaps, Maneige implements a ton of musical ideas that range from a variety of different cultures, such as Mexico in one instance with the horns. I love what I've heard from this Les Porches album by Maneige.The vocals are not in English, but are pretty good and melodic regardless. It's more about the instrumental skills of the album that catch my attention though- going from horns, to electric guitar, to a weird haunting-type atmosphere is pretty amazing. This is why the 70's have the most underrated bands of ANY decade.Imagine if the progressive rock band Camel covered more cultural variety in their music, they'd sound very similar to this. Some of the guitar playing reminds me of early Camel too.I love it. I recommend this album to all progressive rock fans.

All of these Maneige albums are just brilliant! It's amazing that they are not talked about more. Perhaps it's because they are almost completely instrumental, or perhaps their slightly RIO-influenced brand of symphonic progressive is a bit to complex for some people to get into. All of these feature lots of classically-oriented material with flute, vibes, bass, guitar, piano, lots of percussion, saxophone, and other woodwinds Of the first three, this one is probably my favorite (it's really hard to say though), with enough beautiful melodic passages to satisfy any symphonic fan, along with a few RIO-influenced moments. Progressive rock just does not get much better than this.