SOMA WHITE

In the last decade or so Poland became a country that releases more and more Prog music, every year a dozen of bands (or more) release new albums. Not just that, many bands play in the country and end up releasing live albums and DVDs of these concerts, showing that the audience is interested.

During last year I reviewed bands like Quidam, Lebowski, Riverside, AnVision and played on my weekly podcast SBB, Votum, Paweł Penksa, Millenium, Osada Vida and Believe. And that's only the tip of the iceberg, because it would be impossible for me to cover every new release.

So, to try to expand a little bit more the Polish coverage, I'm reviewing today Soma White a new band from Gdańsk, Poland. Their self-titled debut album was released in March and it is an independent album recorded in the PG Studios also in Gdańsk and produced by the band itself.

Soma White is a sextet formed by Hania Żmuda (vocals), Piotr Pastwa (guitars), Paweł Wysocki (keyboards), Kzrysztof Szymczak (drums), Marek Chudzikiewicz (guitars) and Robert Majewski (bass). They say that nowadays before you actually listen to the music you need a good presentation and that your eyes listen too. This is something that will make people pay attention on your music. Soma White has it.

As soon as you get Soma White (2013) in your hands you're amazed by their CD right away. They were able to present a completely new and superb digipack. It's pretty hard to explain what they did so you better check THIS (facebook.com/photo.php? fbid=651040218255457&set=a.616071718418974.1073741825.155970594429091&type= 3&theater) link and try to understand. There's one and only complaint about it. When it comes to the info, there's only the basic on the digipack. No lyrics, no pictures, etc.

As for the music, Soma White (2013) is on the modern Prog side. There's a new wave of bands that was born in the last decade or so that uses Prog Rock in a different way. More 'appealing' for a bigger and younger audience, maybe. Soma White (2013) has this kind of sound, heavy guitars here and there, a solid duo with low bass and drums and an ethereal kind of keyboards. On top of that, many vocals in each track.

The songs in Soma White (2013) are pretty much lengthy, resulting in 9 tracks in 70 minutes. Track one 'The Mind Paradise' has been one of my favorites since the first listening of the album. Another highlight is 'Better Reality' with more than thirteen minutes and layers and layers of vocals by Hania Żmuda.

Paweł Wysocki is a name to be praised on Soma White His keyboards elevate the music many times with different 'noises', beauty piano passages and weird synths. Guitar players Piotr Pastwa and Marek Chudzikiewicz are sometimes pretty much faded away and sometimes is hard to tell that there's two guitars, but very often they'll come out of nowhere with double guitar riffs, like in the track 'Travel Story'. 'Respect ? A Tribute For Nature' closes the album with a simple and pretty piano and many vocals.

Soma White (2013) is a great debut album, high quality and diversity, tough I would still prefer the album a little shorter or maybe some editing on the songs. If you have in your shelf bands like Anathema and Porcupine Tree then you probably will want to have Soma White too. Especially if you want to have one of the nicest digipacks around.

(Originally posted on progshine.net)