MADE IN BELGIUM II

Aranis state on their Bandcamp page that they are pleased that orchestral and rock music are moving closer together in the avant garde underground. I wonder why only because there is little to no rock here; this seems more like chamber folk than chamber rock - Univers Zero, Art Zoyd. Of course, not having rock until towards the end doesn't mean that this is bad, nor that you should ignore it: as a piece of avant garde, a piece of chamber music, and a piece of Flemish folk, in all of this the album succeeds greatly. "Skip XXI" opens as we will proceed: scared strings and winds, and wild voices, all in a strange style. By the album's penultimate and longest track, "Cell Stress", the rock finally enters towards the middle to add to this sound wonderfully. These stand as the best tracks, but in the middle we still have weird, eerie, and unique mastery. The Flemish and French influences are palpable on most tracks, and even without the rock aspect this sounds like Zoyd. I would also go as far as to say that this can stand next to Zoyd's masterpieces. An excellent and off base release for avant-prog fans to savour.