LADY OF SHALOTT

Atmosphera's sole album is essentially a love letter to Yes. Like Druid, Atmosphera produce new compositions following the pattern set by The Yes Album and Fragile, and perform in a manner directly inspired by their heroes - bassist Alon Nadel in particular seems particularly good at creating a big Chris Squire bass sound. Unfortunately, the fuzzy production values on this album prevents it from ascending to the heights that Druid attained. Ultimately there are so many bands out there following the lead set by Yes, and I can't say that Atmosphera represent a blindingly amazing example of this sort of thing; the lack of any compositions of the complexity of Yes' from Close to the Edge to Relayer only underlines the gulf between the inspiring masters and the inspired apprentices. One to pick up if you absolutely cannot get enough of bands who try to sound like early Yes.