THE OTHER SIDE

2,5 stars, really. I found this CD only recently and I was quite curious about it since it was on PA and labeled as neo prog. But upon hearing it I was wondering why on earth anyone would call it neo prog. Not that this is a bad record, not at all. The Other Side is quite interesting and captivating, but its musical style has very little to do with prog. It is mostly a kind of ambient, new age music, not very dissimilar from canadian singer Loreena McKennitt. Like that artist she includes some celtic folk and even gospel influences on her music too.

Having said that I must admit Kate French has a nice, warm voice, sometimes reminding me of Kate Bush (timbre, not style). Most of the tunes are soft and warm, with nice etherial keyboards, a little guitar here and there, few percussive effects and no bass. The only exception is the surprising rocking My Time Has Come, but it the drums were so badly recorded they almost drown French´s voice. Clearly the mixing killed this track. Fortunatly the production, even if not ideal, works for most of the remaining songs.

Unlike Ivan Melgar pointed out on her PA bio notes, I found nothing pop on The Other Side: the majority of the songs have no hooks, no beat and, most of all, no radio friendly stuff one should expect from a pop record.

Conclusion: a nice CD, just don´t expect to find anything really prog on it. But if you like good, warm and tender female singing, with some ambient/celtic/new age instrumentation, this is a good pick.