![]() There are frequent moments where they get into a nice instrumental groove reminiscent of Renaissance or Camel, but with more electric guitar than Renaissance. Tracks), though the first 4-minute track is kind of dreamy/ambient. The cd includes a solid 73 minutes of music (including 27 minutes of bonus More of a folky, mellower, sweeter type of prog. By the way, the lyrics are sung alternately in English and in her native language.Īnd yet, those shortcomings should not detract too much from one's enjoyment of this cd, especially if you are in the mood for Theįemale lead vocalist Yoko Royama (now deceased) is frequently compared to Annie Haslam from Renaissance personally, Iįound her to be noticeably inferior, with a couple of spots where she actually sounded a bit weak or even off-key. Merely acceptable), and the musicianship is pretty good (especially the drumming), though not up to the level of their idols. Production is fine (except on the two live bonus tracks, where it's Sort of a blend of Renaissance, Camel and Genesis, they put together a few pleasantlyĭriving songs here that make the album worthwhile overall. The Japanese symphonic prog group Vermilion Sands only made one album (1989's "Water Blue"), and it's one of the best of this What's in the future for VERMILLION SANDS? We can only gues, because they lost a very important part of their success with the passing away o Yoko, but maybe they will surprise us again with a new album. I don't know if she effectively sung in the album, but the vocals impressed me less than in the debut, because they add that characteristic voice of Japanese anime. In 2013, when very few expected a second album, VERMILLION SANDS releases "Spirits of the Sun", a very nostalgic album almost as homage for Yoko Royama who died of cancer when the album was almost ready. ![]() But what impressed me more is the voice of the fantastic Yoko Royama, who unlike most Japanese female vocals sings instead of shouting, her voice is extremely delicate, and despite singing in an unfriendly language as Japanese, manages to add a sweet touch that moved me. This album really caught me buy surprise, because they were very close to some sort of Symphonic Folk with more than evident reminiscences of RENAISSANCE, but with a Neo Prog and even mainstream rock edge. With the original formation that included Yoko Royama (vocals, flute) Masahiro Yamada (keyboards), Hisashi Matoba (drums & acoustic guitar), Kenji Ota (bass), Takafumi Yamasaki (drums) and Hiroyuki Tanabe (flute, keyboards) they released their debut called "Water Blue" (1989). ![]() VERMILION SANDS was a good but short lived Japanese band formed in the end of the 70's.
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