LEAD US AWAY

"YOLE is a young French band which debuted with the album 'Lead Us Away' in 2006. The band combines their appreciation of symphonic progressive rock of the 70's with modern folk and world music, especially Indian music." Only two lines for a band bio here, but it manages to give some idea of the music itself. That doesn't always happen in lengthy band biographies full of line-up information, I daresay.

As the first reviewer for Yole I'm pleased to share my impressions and go beyond those two lines. The group is a five-piece featuring, I presume, two pairs of brothers: Pierre (guitar, sitar) & Raphaël Grenier (flute, vocals), and Marc (keyboards) & Michel Breal (bass). David Mura is on drums and percussion. The aforementioned tendency of the 70's symphonic prog doesn't materialize as much in the meandering compositions as it does in the sound. The two major influences seem to be YES and GENESIS. At times you may fantasize how Genesis circa 1973 might have sounded like if Peter Gabriel had played much more flute and the band would have oriented more towards instrumental stuff. But be warned: the vocals ruin those impressions.

'Now' is a beautiful, serene little opener featuring a Steve Howe reminding acoustic guitar. Less of the birdsong would have been enough, though. 'To Sail Out' is a relatively loud 2½-minute rock instrumental. This time the flute owes very much to Ian Anderson and JETHRO TULL. 'Crossing' is centred on sitar and Indian-style percussion. Pure World Music, and slightly overextended at six minutes in a progressive rock context.

The title song begins with a shameless Genesis influence in the semi-pastoral sound. Unfortunately the terribly mediocre vocals do no good for the piece: they drag the music towards indie rock (90's and onwards), but for the instrumental sections with lots of flute this composition certainly fascinates me. There are some uncredited female backing vocals to improve things a little. 'I Dream' feels like a sequel to 'Lead Us Away'. For the slightly distorted vocal parts this one works better as progressive rock. I'm thinking of the classic American band HAPPY THE MAN, with hints of the Scandinavian prog revival of the 90's, SINKADUS and such.

The two next pieces are rather esoteric World-flavoured instrumentals containing sitar. 'Crossing (Part Two)' has a nice, minimalistically repetitive female voice, whereas 'Ayurveda' is a bit messy mix of Genesis-like sound and the sitar. 'On the Sun' is yet another song featuring contradictory elements. Whenever the male vocalist -- this time aping Thom Yorke -- is heard, the pastoral Genesis flavour is subsidiary to darker atmospheres reminiscent of Radiohead or Porcupine Tree. Confusing! BTW, I appreciate the way several tracks follow each other seamlessly. 'Epilogue' (falsely named, or placed) is a pleasant, melodic prog instrumental emphasizing on flute.

'On the Sun (Part Two)' has some vocals with lyrics, again with a Thom Yorke orientation, and for the vocalless parts the nearly 7-minute piece feels overextended and directionless, thus being among the weakest tracks. 'Nowhere' is like a patchwork for all the sonic elements heard on the album, without a solid musical idea of its own, and with annoying sound effects of the sea. The final instrumental (but containing wordless vocals) ends the album appropriately in a serene mood like it was started. If 'Now' was a happy sunrise, 'Elsewhere' is a slightly melancholic sunset. Overall the album's cover art reflects the music pretty well.

At times this is a delight with all the classic symph prog connotations and the plentiful flute, at times it unfortunately feels like mixing various elements that don't go so well together.