| CD REVIEW Oxsana Prism |
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Band: Oxsana Prism This act from the French speaking part of Belgium got its current line-up during 2006 when drummer Stéphane Rossewy joined the original trio of Valérie Dereppe (vocals, keyboards), Patrice Verrier (guitar), and Alex Koussonsky (bass), which had been active at least since 2001. With a renewed energy, the band plays some 20-odd gigs in Belgium and abroad (amount almost equalling the total of gigs the band had done previously), and in 2007 the quartet decides to rework their compositions, at the same time signing a deal with Rox Records (a production duo composed of Machiavel’s singer Mario Guccio and bassist Roland De Greef). In a co-production with that team, the band records the 12 songs for this album that same year, eventually licence it over to Moonzoo Music, who eventually find a distributor in the Belgian branch of Universal. And quite frankly, the mind boggles at the possible reasons why the major label did that! I mean, they can’t really hope to sell of lot of copies of this somewhat weird sounding “Rock” act, can they? Like, whatever “Rock” present is blended rather lavishly with ‘80s New Wave elements (leaving only sparce place for the guitarist to step on the distortion pedal for somewhat more energetic fillings). In other words, their music is somewhat out-dated. There’s a couple of passages of the Atmospheric kind as well (like the opening for the title track), making the whole album of a very laid-back pace…not very much in keeping with the overall global tendencies towards more energetic/ aggressive music! On top of which singer Valérie sounds like an attempt at a French version of a lush Marlene Dietrich, singing in English…except for a small passage during “Inner Voices”, where she does a couple of sentences in the German language…the whole done with the most aweful French accents you may ever have heard! Although I suppose the vocal style may do well in the French part of Belgium (perhaps also in France and the French speaking part of Canada as well), I’m not so sure whether the rest of Belgium (or the rest of the world, for that matter) is really up for it. Still, as a music fan I have to admit that this band is quite unique…and after all, the music itself is well thought-out and performed with the necessary restraint to comply with the somewhat Gothic/ Dark mood of the vocal stylings! One possible trouble the band may have when performing live, is to reproduce those songs in which Val does her own backing vocals (which are of a cleaner nature, during “Ghost Of A Doubt” even of a very nice Operatic one)! I’ve searched the Internet for websites with music by the band, but found none (even the band’s own oxsanaprism.be is devoid of sound samples), but maybe the more experienced information highway freak can find some anyway!? Consider the rating below (which you may find on the high side, seen the somewhat negative judgement above) as having grown from my personal feelings about the band’s originality, contrasted against my doubts about its commerciabillity! 84/100 Tony. |