BALKAN

I guess having purchased this album while on visit to Budapest, i am a bit biased but the truth is that Hungarian prog is rather well represented what with Solaris, After Crying, East, Janos Varga Project and the fabulous Musical Witchcraft projects leaving some solid monuments for us hungry (sic) prog fans. This album is "a grows on you" typical prog album, mostly instrumental, with two vocal tracks , one so-so (and the only weak moment here) and the other the complete opposite, "Jeg Vilag"("Ice World") , a real prog winner. The third track, "Balkanon innen" and the aforementioned by my dutch pal Erik, "Challangar" , are rather stunning musical interpretations. In all, the whole disc is very worthy of your money, as the playing is truly first rate, (the drums a tad thin though), with a strong penchant for spacey rythms as opposed to more Hawkwind/Gong/Ozric power space rock. The references here are more in the Oldfieldian vein, with hints of Sensation's Fix (the way the synths blend into the guitar) and perhaps the overall feeling of the two Summers-Fripp projects , with lots of rippling guitar , sweeping synths and heady atmospherics cortesy of Tibor Ladanyi. I liked the music evenmore when placed between other more typical prog albums , because of the rather relaxed, non pretentious , soundtrackish qualities this Magyar band clearly possess. I guess the next opus may be "The Big One" , so we will keep tabs on them. In the meantime, fans of Eloy, Nektar, Hillage and the above mentioned will take to this album to their spaceship consoles and embark on a trip to the stars. 4.5 csillag (stars in Hungarian)