BALKAN

This is the second album from Hungarian four piece band D Sound. The opener "Karpat- medencei hangulat" features a wonderful, a bit spacey climate with keyboards (mainly strings) and percussion. The build-up is strong when a sensitive electric guitar enters and the atmosphere gradually becomes more bombastic. The second song "Doromb" contains the same ethnic elements as fellow Hungarians Solaris, very disctinctive. Most of the following nine compositions alternates between mellow and more bombastic, often Mike Oldfield comes to my mind. It sounds very pleasant and melodic, the sound is very clear and the interplay between the guitars and keyboards is very inventive. On "Challangar" a slow rhythm culminates into a final part with heavy guitar riffs and the sound of the dramatic countdown and crash from the Challenger capsule. The magnum opus on this CD is "73 mp - Challangar 2. " (at about 13 minutes), it contains acoustic rhythm guitar and then the Mike Oldfield-like atmosphere enters, very beautiful. The track "Gyemant Nap" delivers a slow rhythm with a bombastic climate including propulsive drum beats and sensitive electric guitar. The final song "Kozelebb a Naphoz" has soaring keyboards and spacey, slightly distorted guitar runs. This is a very tasteful, varied and modern sounding album featuring pleasant keyboards and lots of Mike Oldfield-inspired climates, WONDERFUL!

I guess having purchased this album while on visit to Budapest, i am a bit biased but the truth is that Hungarian prog is rather well represented what with Solaris, After Crying, East, Janos Varga Project and the fabulous Musical Witchcraft projects leaving some solid monuments for us hungry (sic) prog fans. This album is "a grows on you" typical prog album, mostly instrumental, with two vocal tracks , one so-so (and the only weak moment here) and the other the complete opposite, "Jeg Vilag"("Ice World") , a real prog winner. The third track, "Balkanon innen" and the aforementioned by my dutch pal Erik, "Challangar" , are rather stunning musical interpretations. In all, the whole disc is very worthy of your money, as the playing is truly first rate, (the drums a tad thin though), with a strong penchant for spacey rythms as opposed to more Hawkwind/Gong/Ozric power space rock. The references here are more in the Oldfieldian vein, with hints of Sensation's Fix (the way the synths blend into the guitar) and perhaps the overall feeling of the two Summers-Fripp projects , with lots of rippling guitar , sweeping synths and heady atmospherics cortesy of Tibor Ladanyi. I liked the music evenmore when placed between other more typical prog albums , because of the rather relaxed, non pretentious , soundtrackish qualities this Magyar band clearly possess. I guess the next opus may be "The Big One" , so we will keep tabs on them. In the meantime, fans of Eloy, Nektar, Hillage and the above mentioned will take to this album to their spaceship consoles and embark on a trip to the stars. 4.5 csillag (stars in Hungarian)