BALANSIA

This is another album for the spacerock proggers out there. You can hear Modus for yourself by the stream above. It's representative of the general feel of the album but you'll be missing out if you limit your listening to just that. To get the obvious out of the way. I've been an Ozric fan since university in the late 80s so this music is defintiely my cup of tea. Hidria are the same genre but quite clearly and obviously distinct. Kokkla kicks in with tribal drums and then a guitar sound that reminds me a lot of Lifeson. The theme rises and the band plays around with different ideas, but throughout there remains a constant upbeat dance feel. Astroban opens with atmospheric keyboard and a beautiful swirl of guitar. Again the upbeat dance feel comes to the fore. I agree with Assaf in that the upbeat rhythm becomes a defining characteristic of the album. The subtle changes of mood are much smoother than I found in Symbiosis. Pajas assumes a gentler feel, almost an hypnotic swaying as the band takes you deeper into the Balansia experience. A couple of minutes into the track there is a full breakdown, the "heart beat" bass fades in and eventually an optimistic riff overlays the new direction. The keyboards pick the theme up. The whole becomes more urgent as a siren fades in and the band drives on. Then you are gently laid down as the band breaksdown to a subtle bass riff with clean guitar. Sweet. Pako Originaux. A restrained intro leads you to a syncopated section quite different from the previous offerings. Bass & drums dominating. A dramtaic change introduces a straight driving line. The track mellows down to allow room for the synth & then guitar to overlay (very Ozric). Tarapita (about 14mins) is out there. Weird soundscape. Harder to describe than the others. So I'll take the coward's way out before my lack of musical vocab is cruelly exposed. This is my favourite Hidria Album so far (of Smybiosis/HRDSF-1/Violently Hippy). My vote for this is one the basis of spacerock. I do not think this is an essential album for the progmetallers but I suppose you won't be reading the review unless you're into this genre. So within this genre it's a 5.