BASIC COMMUNICATION

This is a Swedish trio, they know each other from the Eighties because as the progrock formation Madrigal they played prog inspired by Genesis, Rush, Yes and Kansas. Then the members went their own way, sometimes they met again and in the late Nineties this led to a new effort to make music with each other. In 2002 they released under the name Xinema (they had to change their name because of another Madrigal) an album with lots of early work but in 2006 Xinema finally released new work.

Their sound is a pleasant blend of neo-progressive rock and melodic rock featuring lots of great guitar work, almost every song is coloured by the guitar player, from sensitive and compelling to raw and fiery with often howling runs. The vocals sound inspired, the rhythm-section plays tight and the keyboards have a bit functional role but in some tracks we can enjoy flashy synthesizer soli, classical orchestrations and even the impressive sound of (sampled) church organ. The climates in the 14 tracks ranges from mellow to mid-tempo with sursprising musical ideas like spacey keyboard work (the short song Awakening), subdued with Grand piano (Live The Way I Knew It) and lush keyboards and a fiery guitar solo in the final track Dust In Your Eyes. A very pleasant album that will appeal to especially the neo-prog fans.