Z'S DIARY

So, finally you got this CD -- an effort by a band of a country you don't know where it is? Well, go ahead. Turn on your stereo set, put the CD in its tray, take a deep breath, then focus your musical sensor on what is coming out from the speakers. This is a package of music that is not easy to digest, though there are some catchy moments. Patience, however, is a guarantee of a good harvest, i.e. you will get the whole of its charm and beauty.

This is a concept album. Like any concept album, the impressions of its offering will only knock your musical sensor if you completely listen to all of its tracks or songs. A concept has always means a story. Each song represents particular fragment of the story; like a jigsaw puzzle, the whole picture can only be seen when you already reassemble each part of it. This is the usual case of a progressive rock concept album.

The band opens its first full-length album with a moving, ambient intro, from track number one, "Z's Dream". The music enters slowly, with the sound of crashing waves at the background, and it is followed by a narration in Indonesian. Then enters the guitar. When the bass-line plays a rather dynamic, heavy rhythm section, combined with traditional tehyan sound, you will probably begin to get the idea of how the music is like.

Z, surely, is not a word. He is the main character of the story being told by the band. The narration indicates that the story about Z is not something common people will easily understand. It's about a spiritual journey.

While contemplative as it may seem, the band after all succeed in proving their capability to write and perform effortlessly seamless flow of solid songs. The almost 13 minutes long "Z's Dream" is a miniature of the whole composition, which contain almost everything from symphonic style, psychedelic nuance, the power of metal, to ethnic beauty.

Apart from the rather disappointing recording quality, this CD will add precious stuff to progressive rock fans collection.