Band : Realeaf

Album title : Possibly Not

Label : Realeaf

Distributor : Progressive Publicity

Release date : 23/04/2008

Release : CD

The members of this band first met each other some 4 years ago while performing their military service in the Israelian Air Force. From a common musical orientation (some Classical composers, '60s Psychedelica, The Beatles and its individual members' work except Starr , '70s Prog...but also more contemporary stuff like Primus , Radiohead , and Porcupine Tree , and current-day retro Rock bands) came some jam sessions, and from those sessions the intent to start a band seriously once their tour of duty was over.

Before officially starting Realeaf in May 2006, the quartet (composed of lead vocalist/ guitarist/ charango and flute player Yuval Goren , synth/ piano player and backing vocalist Omri Azaria , bass/ Fostex player and backing vocalist Shay Bashan , and drummer/ pianist and backing vocalist Gal Hochberg ) even put in a stint as a Rock 'n' Roll band, singing in Hebrew. One year later to the day (or rather month), the guys had recorded this debut album, and released it through their own label in Israel. They then decided to relocate to Europe in search of a better climate to bring their music out to people. First moving to Ireland (I'm still to come to an understanding of why on earth they went there first), they soon switched to Berlin and have since been spreading their music over Europe...even if they still call Holon, Israel their homebase! Since, I guess the guys have already recorded an additional EP titled Dextrose Compressed Watch Candies , of which you'll find no less than 3 songs posted at myspace.com/realeaf, as well as 2 of the 6 tracks off this album (and a couple of videos).

As you will find out from checking out those mp3-files, Realeaf plays a rather calm Progressive Rock which has quite a bit of remenicences to early '70s Pink Floyd with Gilmour -ian guitar work and occasional keyboard freak-outs (already publicized reviews speak also of a remeniscense to Porcupine Tree , which is something I am unable to confirm or disclaim as, to my regret that band is one of the many acts I still need to discover – with the amount of releases that come out each year one simply cannot afford to buy all relevant releases even within óne genre, and since I àm a somewhat eclectic music listener...). Soft lead vocals are backed in a similar way by all of the other members. Lengthy album opener "Giant Bus In The Sky" even has a nice bit of melancholic flute in it...melancholy being the key word for the grand total of the band's oeuvre! Which doesn't mean the guys don't have moments when they're putting down a more energetic passage, you know. The trouble (well, it depends on how you look at things...) with this album is that is was conceived from a lengthy jam session, meaning you get no stickly defined song "borders", as the music simply floats from one song to the next. Actually, there's only one moment where a bit of silence is used, and that ain't even between track, but merely as a breather moment before you get the outro of the album: some synth sounds which fittingly resemble the outdoor sounds of a very gloomy and dark winter's day (something you already get a foretaste of halfway through the album with the 46-second track "The Rising 5Pt II)" .   But the fact that the band has a man specifically for keyboard duties, apparently does not mean he'll be doing sómething all of the time, just to be involved, you know. There's moments when he's able to sit back and just do nothing...which is the case in the overall calmer "A Peaceful V" , where he only intervenes towards the end to lay down a sparce bit of piano (the guitar on said song acoustic for once).

A definite advantage of the fact that the band released this on their own effort last year, is that Progressive Publicity was able to send out copies for promotion almost two months before the actual European distribution. Always working with the release date in mind, it means that I was able to give the 8-track, 38 ½ minute album several listening sessions obver the period of the last two months. It merely helped to get me familiar with the material to a certain extend and not really in-depth, because as it turned out every time I was listening to the album as a whole I was dreaming away. In fact, I find myself getting in trouble again while trying to concentrate on writing this review, as I am listening to the album at the same time.

In short, there should be no doubt in your mind what-so-ever about this band's qualities, and if you are indeed into Progressive Rock, there is no excuse for you nót to check the band's material out (on my part, I promise I'll check out Porcupine Tree , sounds like an interesting band to buy stuff from too). Meanwhile, the band hàs of course already been working on new material, in between their now certainly more active gigging schedule. There's the (also 2007 released) Dextrose Compressed Watch Candies EP to be considered as a next buy from this act, and there's probably already a new album in the making. Sounds like truly good stuff is coming our way. Of course the album gets top rating, but I wonder...since the album was actually released last year, can I still put Possibly Not (the album title adding to my somewhat confused/ dazed state of mind...with the music still continuing in the back) in my "Best Albums Of 2008" list?

98/100

Tony.