Signal To Noise Ratio

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Signal To Noise Ratio - Demo II

Artist:	Signal To Noise Ratio
Title:	Demo II
Label:	self produced
Length(s):	35 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2004
Month of review:	[09/2005]

Line up

Marysia Bialota - synthesizer
Przemek Pilacinski - guitar
Izaak - drums
Tomek Wilk - bass
with
Ola Jaromin - vocals
Natalia Uzieblo - flute

Tracks

1)	Eden	5.34
2)	Entropia	13.45 MP3
3)	Kruk	5.34
4)	Opium	10.52

Summary

A demo from Poland, where Signal To Noise Ratio exists since 2003. The current bass player, since April 2005, is Tomek Zur. The flautist is now also a member of the band.

The music

Eden is the percussive opener, with slow sombre guitar and keyboards. The flute lends a lighter, folky feel to the music. Is it me, or do Polish prog bands often have flute in there somewhere? Compared to, say Quidam, Signal To Noise Ratio sound more lo-fi, more seventies and also quite a bit darker. Strange that a band with a name like this tends to sound so 'old'. Based on the band name and the art work I expected something more modern. Melodiwise this is a good song where the keyboards/organ take care of the melody, and the guitar is responsible for the psyche edge.

Entropia is the first of the two epics on this demo. Again, there is a strongly psychedelic oriented feel as this song is trying the get underway. The band tries to build it up slowly with two guitars, one in each ear more or less. One of is a rhythm guitar, the other plays more strummingly (or is that the bass?). The song becomes wonderful when the longing vocals Ola Jaromin set in. She sings in Polish, but the vocal melody is great. This sounds like the female counterpart to Anekdoten's Liljestrom. In fact, the guitar sound in the laid back second half also reminds of that band. What we may be missing is the mellotron, and the better production, because indeed the sound quality is that of a demo. Nothing wrong with that at this point. Towards the end we get a drum solo of a kind that doesn't sound great: do this only when you know how to record it; drums are difficult to record and this makes the song sound very amateurish. The pace does go up after this short intermezzo.

Kruk is a slowly, acoustic, jangly tune, slow paced with a jazzy piano involved (incidentally, a 'kruk' in Dutch is that on which a piano player sits while he plays). The guitar sound though is more in seventies Crimson style, with some blues leanings. Towards the end, the white noise takes over. I can't see why though.

Opium is another epic and also the closer of this mini album. It continues the psychedelic, early Amon Duul II element: lots of percussion, a bit of an Indian, sitar like influences and the use of flute and fluting synths is quite dominant too. There is plenty of bass on this instrument which accompanies the repetitive guitar. The mood is more of importance here than the shape of the melody. This is quite typical for this introspective brand of psyche. Towards the end, we get more pace and a bit of that Anekdoten feel back.

Conclusion

I really loved Entropia (okay, except the attempted drum solo), the other songs have more of a psychedelic streak which gives the players more freedom, but as a result also captivate less. It would be great if they would use that guest vocalist a bit more. As a result, the sound of this demo is very much in seventies psyche vein, with a bit of sonic experimentation to scare of the faint of heart.