LA DANSA DE LES RATES

This is the first ever review of a L Herba D Hameli album in the ProgArchives.

I better use some time on describing their music too. L Herba D Hameli is not a run-of-the- mill folk rock band. Although they have one foot in the Prog Folk category, the other foot is all over the place. This band is truly a progressive band and it's inclusion in PA is more than justified.

La Dansa De Les Rates is their debut album and a good one too. The music here can be compared to Jethro Tull. I guess the music here is also very influenced by Katalan folk music, although I do not know this scene so I do not know. But there are some music here I cannot pinpoint and I guess it is their local folk music. This makes the album stronger in my view. Jazz and fusion is the third major influence on this album.

The music is a mix of pastoral folk, jazz, and rock. There are some heavy Jethro Tull like guitar and flute riffs here. There are also a lot of acoustic guitars and excellent vocals here too. The last third element on this album is long jazz like instrumental passages. The music is also full of contrasts with heavy guitars and flutes following pastoral pieces. The main instruments is acoustic and electric guitars, flute, bass and drums. The music is also supported by cello, mandolin and organ. The sound is mostly organic, acoustic. The vocals is excellent in the meaning of "fitting to this music".

The quality is superb throughout. Both Entreacte (part 1 and part 2) is excellent. The same can be said about La dansa de les rates and La cançó de la cobdícia. The rest of the album is superb too. There is no doubt that this album (and their other albums) is gems just waiting to be dug out from the fertile grounds of Catalonia. This album is a free (legal) download from their homepage and it is highly recommended. I rate this album very highly and gives it four stars.

4 stars

A Catalan group from Barcelona, found in 2001 with guitarist Albert Nardi, bassist Dani Fabre, drummer Guillem Roma and multi-instrumentalist Llibert Ribo as the original crew.The obcure name of the band propably is derived from the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which is a great story to be read.The same year the group released indepedently its debut ''La dansa de les rates''.

The strong folky content of the album strengthens the possible origin of the band's name, as ''La dansa de les rates'' has an evident medieval flavor, always supported by the solid guitar work of Nardi.The music is led by the nostalgic flute work, the secure use of 12-string guitars and mandolin, all performed by Ribo, and the occasional electric bursts.Vocals come possibly in the Catalan language, but they come out a bit colorless and without any particular passion.The tracks' structures are based on the constant switches between Medieval-styled Folk Rock and guitar-driven Rock music, but these sound quite loose without a high deegree of coherence.The band tries to deliver some intense and moving themes of a folky nature, but the result is not really conveincing.The best parts of the album are definitely the nice textures created by the electric guitars and flute interplays, much in the vein of JETHRO TULL or Italian bands such as OSANNA or JUMBO.Ribo is credited also the use of organ, but the only keyboard sound I can detect is somekind of synthesizer in a couple of tracks.

The potential is certainly there.More tight ideas and a more balanced sound would definitely improve L' Herba d'Hameli's style.Still there are some chances this work could be deeply appreaciated by lovers of electric Prog Folk...2.5 stars.