CRÉATION DE L'UNIVERS

Xing Sa is an excellent new Zeuhl/fusion band from France, a side project of three members of Setna. The trio plays mostly instrumental music, with the occasional guest vocals by Yannick Duchene Sauvage. This album is, especially for Zeuhl, really smooth. At times I'm reminded of Guapo's album "Five Suns" but much lighter, with warmer production (a job well done by none other than Udi Koomran). All of the members of the band proper are really excellent musicians. The band is keyboard prominent, but A) that isn't a problem as the keyboardist is really superb and B) the drums and bass get plenty of room to shine as well. As mentioned in the band's bio, the keyboardist really channels Benoit Widemann's Moog abilities on occasion. He's got such a great sound, no matter what keys he's playing. The bassist has an excellent fuzzy sound (shouldn't come as a huge surprise as the genre's famous for its fuzzy bass fun). The drumming is jazzy and all over the place. The lack of guitar on the album isn't a bad thing, either. These three do a superb job by themselves (with a little help from their friends, of course). All of the track suites are really well played, I'm partial to the "Feu" tracks and the "Metal" tracks, though the album as a whole is really solid and even.

I would quickly recommend this album to anyone who's interested in either Zeuhl or fusion. As for the Zeuhl end, it's one of the most accessible entry points into the genre I've heard so far, which is a plus. The vocals on the album aren't as "goofy" as with some of the better known bands (really, the vocals are sparse and sort of otherworldly). This is a masterful album, and I think it deserves nothing less than a masterpiece rating of five stars. I can't find any flaws in the album, and I'm really hoping these three plan to release more albums with this band (as opposed to with Setna, whose album I haven't yet checked out).