Draw the Sky are a talented French prog band who have serious jazz leanings. Instrumentation plays a big part of that with some fine sax playing through out. Their debut album “Humanity” kicks off with the track “Back” which reminds me a little of Anekdoten, with excellent mellotron and a guitar tone that is definitely a throw back to the 70s. It also has excellent dual playing between the guitar and sax.

They remind me a lot of Gong as well but not to the point of feeling like they are ripping them off at all. Certainly there’s a Magma influence as well. “Reaching the Sun” has a bit of a Canterbury vibe to it. “Liwo” is a dreamy number with a nice flow to it, while “Aquatic Dream” is like jazz on steroids.

Draw the Sky are MOSTLY an instrumental band (and great musicians at that), and I wish I could say they were a completely instrumental band. Unfortunately (for me), two tracks have vocals which don’t stack up as well as the music. “Aicha” is the first of the two and with an almost spoken word vocal, it’s a turn off. The music is also a tad corny as well. I can’t take this one at all. The vocals on the closing title track are flat…I mean flat and weak. It kills the track completely.

It’s a shame because I was prepared to give this album a VERY high score but once again a young band doesn’t stick to what they are good at and take it too far. Six of the 8 tracks are top notch and certain show that Draw the Sky could be a force in the prog world. I am concerned that they might just keep experimenting with bad vocals. That’s their choice I suppose.

Rating: 7.5/10

Tracklist:
1. Back
2. Reaching The Sun
3. Saturn
4. Liwo
5. Aquatic Dream
6. Aicha
7. Cordoba
8. Humanity

Website: www.drawthesky.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/drawtheskyband