SNY ANIOłÓW

Although less brilliant than their debut, this second album by the polish Quidam is still a very enjoyable example of melodic Neo-Prog, as long as you do not despise the genre. This is Neo focussed on beauty, all very melodic and sweet, and hugely emphasized by the gorgeous voice of Emila Derkowska, for most of the time angelical but she can also throw in some energy when needed (those who have seen them live in that period and heard their version of Deep Purple's "Child in Time" surely know what I mean). Her voice is undoubtedly the highlight.

The frequent flute and occasional cello also contribute to the feeling of classical beauty. If what you seek in prog is experimentation, complexity or dissonance, stay away from this.

While many Neo-Prog bands are based on strong interplay between keyboards and guitar, this music is very much lead by the vocal melody and has also a nice very upfront bass, the keyboards and guitar do a fine job but never take a starring role, no virtuoso self-indulgence here at all. The structures and rythms are not complex yet they somehow manage to avoid any feeling of pop-prog, thanks in good part to a drumming which while not being very elaborated is interesting enough.

I have the version sung in polish and have never heard the english one. The album starts with a soft flute melody on keyboards background (which will re-appear in track 8) and then it flows through a collection of upbeat, mid-tempo and slow tracks making a good balance, the softest ones close to being pastoral but never to the point of being ridiculously mellow, and the hardest ones with enough energy yet never sounding really hard. The proggiest track is the 7th "Pod Powieka" mostly because it's the longest, and because it has the most variation in time signatures, but that does not mean much, if they would have combined 3 or 4 of the other tracks in a suite of 15 or 20 min, everybody would say that was the best track even if the music was the same as it is now in separate tracks.

For the rest the album is quite in line with the Neo-Prog standard sound and has a very clean production.

Surely 3 stars, and I hesitate if the outstanding voice of Emila should not be enough to entitle it 4.