MADE IN BELGIUM II

Aranis state on their Bandcamp page that they are pleased that orchestral and rock music are moving closer together in the avant garde underground. I wonder why only because there is little to no rock here; this seems more like chamber folk than chamber rock - Univers Zero, Art Zoyd. Of course, not having rock until towards the end doesn't mean that this is bad, nor that you should ignore it: as a piece of avant garde, a piece of chamber music, and a piece of Flemish folk, in all of this the album succeeds greatly. "Skip XXI" opens as we will proceed: scared strings and winds, and wild voices, all in a strange style. By the album's penultimate and longest track, "Cell Stress", the rock finally enters towards the middle to add to this sound wonderfully. These stand as the best tracks, but in the middle we still have weird, eerie, and unique mastery. The Flemish and French influences are palpable on most tracks, and even without the rock aspect this sounds like Zoyd. I would also go as far as to say that this can stand next to Zoyd's masterpieces. An excellent and off base release for avant-prog fans to savour.

ARANIS' (Belgium) "Made in Belgium II"- 2014, is a highly friendly release, tainted all over with late Univers Zero's (also Belgium)) kind of idiomatic progressions which kind of distract the attention to their more unique and own music expressions. But then again blame it on the weather (maybe).

Anyway, their perfect pitch sense of musicianship and synchronicity is also present as their country's fellow mates, which eventually surfaces, as mentioned, with attractive solutions to their more personal musical language efforts.

Now, to be fair, they kind of have, and I guess they know it, a great space to fit in UZ's shoes, which probably follows them like a lurking shadow, but then again their creative side certainly sets them on top of the new Chamber Folk/Rock ensembles or more in tune with their PA's address, something like Post-RiO with a cerain Avant-Prog quality.

****4 PA stars.