Alura – Alura

Release date: 2006
By: Wouter van de Kamp

This young Dutch poprockband was founded in September 2006. Meanwhile they won Taaipop 2007 and they released their selftitled EP in June 2007. After that, they played, not quite without merit, on the Uitmarkt (Amsterdam) and the Pepperfestival (Hoorn). But now to their music.

The first thing that struck me was the versatile voice of the female vocalist. We, or at least I, already know the singer from the other band she’s in called Mindfields. She screams and shouts and sings in many different ways. She flows easily from a raw rock and roll sound to relaxing jazz. Technically all the other bandmembers are quite gifted as well. They all master their instruments   and together they have made quite complex compositions. If you are looking for comparances to other bands you’ll find them in Skin/Skunk Anansie and Guano Apes.

The songs are quite ok but somehow they just seem to miss something for me personally. They are not able to keep my attention the whole song through. Maybe (part of this) is caused by the quality of the recording. It is not bad, far from it, but it could have been done just a bit better, which could give it just that little bit extra. The main thing is actually the voice which could use some more reverb to make it sound more full. But that is just my personal taste. It is a solid band and I am curious as to their live sound as well as their performance. I hope to check them out soon.

Links:
Alura official