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!