HAIZEA

The firstrecord of Basque group Haizea is really a full blown Folk Rock album with only very slight touches of psych or prog overtones. Neither is it overtly Basque-sounding (outside the obvious Basque speaking voice), meaning that it does not sound like the traditional village music either for festivities or or cultural events such as the Basque pelota or even the special dances or stilt competitions. No, it simply sounds like a calm and subdued Fairport Convention sung in another language.

This is especially true for the first side of the vinyl except the second track which sounds a bit like Andean folk music. The more interesting tracks are on the second side where there are slight touches of what is to come in their much better second al;bum. From the start Ura Ixuririk sounds slightly more adventuresome and this is confirmed by timid (but noticable) psych electric guitar lines . One finds the same same ambiances but slightly more outlined in the following track and the third track the 9 min Arrosa Xuriaren Azpian is also diverging slightly from the rest of the album and allows a few improvisation around the end.

Although not as exciting as their other one, the album (like its follow-up) is however quite short, and one wishes that the CD releases would've released both albums on one Cd especially that the succession of both album is musically quite an impressive evolution, the last track of the debut album making the perfect intro to the first tracks of the second album.