CONTRAPONTO

Don't believe the presentation of the band in this site: Spin XXI's sound is totally regressive. There's nothing new or particularly contemporary in their music. That said, I must confess that this is a wonderful symphonic prog album. Keyboards remind me the italian greats, specially Le Orme and PFM, while Gabriel's Genesis is another obvious reference. The keyboard work of Eraldo Correia is very good, the highest point of this album. But the musicians as a whole are a good team, and the clean production makes the keyboard sounds at the front of the speakers. Now, the low point: the singer is far from the same league as his band's comrades. Sometimes awful, others embarrasing, but acceptable most of time: that's the best thing I can say about Kakao Figueiredo. Lyrics are very bad too, in some points ridiculous, but I really don't care about lyrics in music. My problem with Kakao is his wanna-be theatrical posture, that is simply a distasteful thing in a singer that has a medium range and lacks personal style. Nowadays I don't buy any album before listen to it. I dowloaded Contraponto and I'm buying it now. I recommend this practice to anyone who wants to explore minor or unknown bands and/or albums, because some times reviews - even the balanced ones, as here in PA - can led you to mistakes (in my case, Rick Wakeman's No Earthly Connection). Overall this is very good three-stars album. I can't give more stars because I'd be cheating people who don't know the real symphonic prog classics. Everyone must do their symph prog homework (all symphonic Italian greats, English giants plus Kansas, Focus and some other guys) before start to listen the minor but nice figures. That's my opinion.