KARNATAKA

FIRST REVIEW WITH A COMMENT

"Karnataka" will inevitably remind you of "Mostly Autmun". Same link to "Floyd", a female and very pleasant vocal, a soft-rock mood with beautiful vocal harmonies. The stage is set. There are great chances that you will appreciate this band if you like these charateristics (as I do).

The vocals from Rachel are really pleasant. This is especially noticeable in "Tell Me WHy". But what about "Crazy" ? Is this Heather ? What a great moment of music ! Rather succesful prog folk. I would call it soft-rock. The melody is beautifully interpreted by Rachel. Some furious guitar will transport you in some sort of Josh solo ("MA" guitar player). If you would listen to this album blindly, you surely would tell that it is a "MA" song. Great crescendo building and somptuous instrumental part.

Some might feel that "Karnataka" lacks in originality which might well be right; but the music they play is so beautiful and emotional that I am ready to forgive them. This album is a very strong one; probably better that several "MA" ones from their earlier repertoire. The Floydian aspect of their music is fully present during "Until Next Time". Again, this is a superb rock ballad (but on a harder edge). Great sax break you know like ... Sublime and aerial vocals. I am totally charmed and completely blown away. This is an extremely good song. A highlight of course of this excellent album so far. Again, the guitar break is magical.

And the magic goes on again with "The Woman In Me". Superb vocal harmonies, really. Do I need to mention that the guitar break during the second half of the song is somptuous again ? Hi Josh or Dave (Gilmour) of course.

The first weak track is "There Must Be A Way". A bit weird I have to say. To me, it sounds almost as an experimental and improvised song. But it is really the first time that I have the feeling so far and we are heading to the last two songs. But, like "Mostly Autumn" in some of their releases, the final part of the album will not be as good. Still, the second instrumental half of "Run To You" is quite alright.

This band should deserve a bit more of you attention. Fifteen commented reviews for their six works available on PA. Come on ! Give them a try ! They fully deserve it. Four stars.

Karnataka ? Karnataka

The beginning of Karnataka is a promise of things to come

The first Karnataka album was a success for the band introducing to the prog world the musical genius of the band complemented by the beautiful vocals of Rachel Jones. This debut is not as good as the other 2 albums they produced, but it still full of great moments. For example, Closer is a terrific track with a memorable melody and very strong lyrics.

The problem with the album is the overall production, the quality lacking in many areas, especially in the mixing. It feels a little rushed and not as polished as albums to come. However, there is no mistaking the musical inventiveness of Karnataka and they certainly create an ethereal ambience on each track. It is very relaxing music and easy to listen to on any occasion, it may even put you to sleep as I felt quite sleepy listening to this.

The music does not have shock blasts of energy but rather flows along and Jones' enchanting lullaby vocals are pure bliss. I can recommend this if you love Mostly Autumn, but if you want to hear the best of the band try their other 2 albums first, especially The Storm which is an absolute gem. 3 stars.

Now that also Heather Findlay has left the Mostly Autumn I was looking for a band able to replace them in my preferences and thanks to PA I discovered this South-Welsh band. My first impression with this debut album was that they are closer to neo-prog bands like Marillion than to Mostly Autumn. Of course Rachel Jones can remind to Mostly Autumn, but there's not that obstinate attempt to sound like David Gilmour that's typical of Bryan Josh. They also don't have the celtic riffs of the first MA albums.

In brief they are different.

Try to imagine Steve Hogarth singing instead of Rachel and if you don't consider a slow song like "Until Next Time" that's effectively very close to Mostly Autumn,they could be the Marillion of the first Hogarth's period.

Said so, is this a good album? I think yes. It's a debut, it's well played and it's promising.

I need to listen to more of them but this CD makes me wishing to try more.

3 stars by now.