Sweden's Xinema began life as Madrigal back in the mid-Eighties, making music inspired by the likes of Asia, Kansas and Trevor Rabin-era Yes. Madrigal eventually split up, but band members reformed in 1998 and decided to rearrange and re-record some of their older material under a new name: Xinema. To its credit, the resulting disc, 2002's Different Ways, played more like a complete album than a compilation.
While Xinema's more-compelling second record, Basic Communication, finds the trio expanding on its emerging progressive sound with stand-alone tracks like "Colours," "Train to Nowhere" and "Dust In Your Eyes," the real signs of musical maturity can be heard on two moody 13-minute epics that comprise the core of Basic Communication. "Speak to the World" is a four-part piece that consists of two brief instrumental sections — one ambient and one classical — mixed with alternately bombastic and softer lyrical sections. Meanwhile, the five parts of "Ghost of a Memory" are more complex and subtle (think early Genesis), and hint at Xinema's musical insight.
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Mikael Askemur's voice sounds a little weak for some of this material, and he often is overpowered by the music. Nonetheless, Basic Communication finally establishes Xinema as a viable component of the new wave of progressive rock, with the promise of even better things to come.
Track Listing:
1) Colours
2) Train to Nowhere
3) Talk
SPEAK TO THE WORLD Part I to IV
4) Pt.1 Awakenings
5) Pt.2 Newton's Cradle
6) Pt.3 At the Hovel of Eddie's
7) Pt.4 Basic Communication
8) Life the Way I Knew It
GHOST OF A MEMORY Part I to V
9) Pt.1 Nothing to Fear
10) Pt.2 Grapes of Wrath
11) Pt.3 The Passage
12) Pt.4 Black Pigeon
13) Pt.5 Deus ex Machina
14.Dust in your Eyes
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