LIVE IN THE USA

After hearing their Strange Behaviour live CD I was looking for this DVD for a long time, guessing it might be good, since the CD had that kind of sound hinting that the show was a brilliant event. Well, all I can say is Live In The USA is much more than I expected for. This DVD shows the band at their absolute peak. Not only the group delivered a great sound but also an excellent all around performance. I mean, their show is as good in sound as it is visually and not only because Rachel Jones and Anne-Marie Helder are gorgeus women! Their vocal interplay is stunning, very delicate and subtle most of the time, and yet strong and beautiful. Very original and the highlight of the show. The girls also have a great stage presence, moving around all the time, smiling, playing and generally having a good time. They seem to be enjoying the evening as much as the audience!

The rest of the band provides a solid sound but the star of the show instrumentally is obviously guitarrist Paul Davies, with his tasteful electric guitar licks and solos, in the best David Gilmour tradition. While it is true that all the musicians are highly skilled ones, there are no ego battles anywhere. Everybody seems to be working their best for the music itself. If you pay attention you´ll notice how good everyone of them is and how they fill every possible spot with the necessary amount of notes to highlight the melody. Nothing more, nothing less. If you´re looking for virtuosity displays, look somewhere else. Here the band is playing for the music.

The sound and filming are very good, with some quite creative using of editing. The band plays so good sometimes you might think they are actually mimicking to a CD, like you´d spect from a prog group (some bum notes here and there proves they are not!). On the down side I could point the absence of extras, the short time (but they actually play most of their better material) and the sadness of knowning the band broke up soon after this tour. I can only wonder how popular they could get if they stayed together and released at least one more album with this line up (Anne-Marie Helder was only added recently, even though it seems she was forever in the group judging her perfomance here).

One of the best DVDs in my collection. Great show and a must have for anyone who likes melodic prog music with a touch of celtic, new age and folk influences. The combination of fine songs, amazing vocals, thight musicanship and brilliant stage perfomance allows me no less than a 5 star rating. A classic!

I got to learn Karnataka by means of two compilation Classic Rock DVD´s. The band grasped my attention because of their original sound that was quite difficult to get into and because of the more than attractive female singer, Rachel Jones. A stunning beautiful lady with a low but expressive voice.

Just by coincidence I succeeded to lay my hands on this DVD, Live in the USA. And it proved far better than I could anticipate, simply because the band is augmented by the presence of Anne-Marie Helder. Both ladies seem to enjoy the gig intensively, dancing, jumping, seducing the guys in the band and flirting with them and among themselves (?). Great to watch, especially since their singing is extremely good and because the guys in the band are surprisingly static. Both ladies take the vocals, Rachel the lead and Anne- Marie the backing vocals, also playing flutes on several tracks. Her voice and her instrument make a hell of difference for this original band: they now sound really good, original, sometimes a bit weird because of the odd combination in the chords. The listener has to grow into their music because of the strange melodies and harmonies. The singing is extremely melodic though, mellow, romantic and sometimes hard- edged, reminiscing of Mostly Autumn and, sometimes, even Annie Haslam. The tracks in which the flute plays an important role, like 'Delicate flame of desire', 'The storm' and 'Heart of stone' rank among the best of this dvd. All other tracks are very, very nice but somewhat predictable: a vocal line, some choruses, an outburst on guitar (great playing in the vein of Brian Josh, David Gilmour and the likes) and then a closing section. So in the song writing some improvements can be applied. Too bad the band split up shortly after this dvd was made. With all talents combined in this line-up of the band it would have been possible to gain as much success as, for instance, Mostly Autumn.

It's hard to get but it is certainly worth to try to, this really is an excellent additon to your collection!

Well I hate to be the one to say something negative about a band I loved, but...

I found this DVD to be a bit of a disappointment after their previous release. First of all I'm not a fan of "live" shows which are broken up with interview snippets as to me it spoils the flow. Plus I found the black & white inserts annoying and for me they also distracted from the flow. The band were so good as a unit and Rachel's voice so stunningly pure that they do not need such visual gimmicks to enhance the show to my mind.

Now maybe I have a poor copy, but for me also the sound was a disappointment - it is supposedly a 5.1 mix but I found it really muddy in places.

And last of all I'd disagree with Gavin's interview comment that the songs sound 10 times better with the addition of Anne-Marie Helder on semi-lead vocals. I thought the arrangements were 10 times worse and became a bit of a mess at times. Maybe it was the sound mix, but I found her contributions intrusive and I did not see how they enhanced the songs that much - Rachel did not need any vocal support in my mind.

But having said all that, this is one of just 2 precious video records of a now sadly-defunct line- up which produced some "wonderful stuff" (thanks Bob Harris). If you are thinking of getting this one, make sure you get their earlier DVD too - a much better effort in my opinion.