EMTIDI

Just like listening to this album and this band can come out of an interesting search down a rock 'n' stuff obscure store, down the more dusted and old-stocked albums sections (true, the second album Saat can be more top-shelved, it's much better than the debut), the album itself is purely an interesting listen, with some calm progressive features and a bit of biased mix, always good to sense, feel or radically attach.

Emtidi mixes, generally, a folk consistent craft with a sum of various impressions, going from symphonic easy/too easy affections, psychedelic impressive nuances or drops, even some krautrock derange, most rare to hear, and a general good disposition towards the separate blend of composition, instrumentality, vocals-dominance and lyricalness. Sadly from this partially good partially unreachable debut comes the fact that all those mentioned styles aren't the best, the strongest or the most intricately played in the entire genre: the progressive radical involvement, in such an early time, is complicated enough, as to show Emtidi in both a relaxing and pointless spotlight. Not to gravely emphase the second word, nevertheless to decisively mark that Emtidi could have been a better prog musical program.

The album is strangled by the work and persisting value of only two artists, who play an eclectic range of instruments and do get to express even more than that. Maik Hirschfeldt, though credited for mainly traditional instruments, makes the wondrous precision of an acoustic guitar special sound, of a relatively complex instrumentality or of a chain of effects, proper for folk, prog or otherwise nothing so pointed-out at all. Dolly Holmes is essential by her vocals (which combine the good affection of chanting, small effects and crystal lyrical vitality essences, but also lowers down to ballads and swings, familiar with Renaissance and Annie Haslam's sound-charm), but can only please, though not distinctively, her part of instrument perdition, mixing more unusual ones with the same guitar cocktail.

Finally this folk/psychedelic album isn't fantastic, but peaceful and in a peace of prog satiety. Good melodies attract small moments of poignant ethnicism or folk clever accents. The drift, though, sticks to being a charm cast, a progressive outtake, a fragmented sense. The first part, though under all manners gaining in beauty sung and melody-personalization, suffers the most; casual, crispy at most, chestful gentle at best. The second part, highlighting Space Age's sudden improvisation of strange sounds, more sequenced instrumentality or a bright cosmic flare, and Flutepiece, as a strong and exciting explosion of flute play and sound-movement, can be something good for fans or for a worthy artistic inclination. Counting all the efforts and the delicate composition, but facing a popular, easy, even adverse from major folk or truthful psychedelic orientations, Emtidi is rather pale, early recorded, fascinatingly missed and smooched.

I think this is only for fans (folk and psych, most confidently). With Saat, the picture changes.