SANDROSE

Sandrose was a one shot french band that gained much praise from prog circles in latter years. So I was quite curious about them for a long time. And when I found their only CD I can´t say I was exactly thrilled from what I heard. Ok, they were good. Instrumentaly speaking I could find no fault about them: excellent guitarrist, very good keyboards and a tight rhythm section, as the non vocal track Metakara proves very well. The main problem you have to overcome is Rose Podwojny´s affected, over-the-top, style of singing. She has a good voice but her singing is too forced on some parts, as she is trying to reach some tones she obviously can´t. When she restrains her exaggerated perfomances, which unfortunatly she often does not, it works very well.

Which is really a pity since Snadrose has some strong tunes and very good musicians. The production is also very good for the time. I loved the use of Hammond organ and the waves of melltrons working together with Jean-Pierre Alarcen´s brilliant, slightly jazzy, guitar playing. I´m sad this band broke up soon after they released this album. Certainly they had lots of talent and the group could evolve into something really big if they persisted a little more time. As it is I think this album is quite good, especially for the ones who enjoy early 70´s prog rock stuff. Rating: something between 3 and 3,5 stars.