THE YEARNING

Aisles is a band from Chile and The Yearning (2005) is their first album. It was released by Mylodon Records and distributed by Musea Records.

The band was kind enough to send me their 2 albums (they're about to release a 3rd one soon) and because I usually don't review 'old' releases I've decided to do mini reviews for old albums once in a while, especially the ones I have in my CD collection and I haven't reviewed yet.

On this first album of Aisles they were a quintet with Sebastián Vergara (vocals and flutes), Germán Vergara (electric and acoustic guitars), Luis Vergara (keyboards), Rodrigo Sepulveda (electric and acoustic guitars) and Alejandro Meléndez (keyboards). In The Yearning (2005) both Rodrigo and Germán played the bass and the drums were recorded by Alejandro and Rodrigo.

In general, The Yearning (2005) follows a Neo Prog path. Unfortunately, it lacks a good production and depth sometimes. The fact that the band used sampled drums instead of real ones doesn't help that much too.

I come to imagine very often while listening to the album that Aisles' music could be in Spanish instead of English, that would be a very interesting thing to have, and perhaps it would give the overall change in sound that would make the album sound better.

The Yearning (2005) incorporates 7 songs, 2 of them over 10 minutes long (making them be the most interesting ones) and the others between 4 and 8 minutes long. 'The Rise Of The White Sun' has interesting choruses and a couple of songs use the acoustic guitars as the main instrument. The electric guitars sometimes lack in depth, but in tracks like 'Grey' they are pretty much alive. All in all, a good debut album with more than enough interesting music on it to make you pay attention.

3.5 stars if I could!

Key track: Grey