Monday 20 March 2017

Hidria Spacefolk - Balansia (2004)


The second album from this Finnish band.

The band is a five piece band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, percussions, synths and electric piano. They also got help from five other guest musicians who provided marimba, cello, vibraphone, slide guitar and trumpet.
 
I very much liked their 2002 debut album Symbiosis. The review is here. It was a promising space rock album. An album which pointed towards a good career. A career with so far four studio albums.

Balansia is following down the same path. Although I would use the space rock label here, there is a lot of other influences here too. Music genres too, in fact. This album is therefore barely a space rock album.

There is a lot of TV series and cinematic music on this album. You will find a lot of similarities between this music and the slick big budget crime and action TV series from the 1980s and the 1990s. Miami Vice springs to mind. A TV series where Jan Hammer provided a lot of music. There is also some cinematic over the music here. 

The music is dynamic throughout the whole fifty minutes long album. Dynamic, but a bit too slick and too 1980s/90s for my liking.

Those who love pure space rock will look with disdain at this album. An album without that many good themes either. But it is a decent enough album..... decission time. It is somewhere between a decent and good album. It is lacking teeth and substance, this album. Therefore.....

2.5 points





No comments:

Post a Comment