| Review by racerguy April 24, 2005 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
BAP is a German rock group from Cologne. They have been around since the late 1970s, and have released many albums. SONX is their most recent release (2004), and their first SACD.
Like most performers who don't sing in English, BAP is not well-known outside its home country. Further complicating this is that BAP's lyrics are sung in a dialect peculiar to Cologne. Even if you understand German, you will probably not understand the lyrics unless you are a native of Cologne. Fortunately, the booklet accompanying the disc has Cologne dialect-to-German translations!
Nevertheless, BAP has enjoyed quite a bit of popularity in Germany and surrounding German-speaking countries. Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, which makes the release of this album on SACD significant.
As I said, BAP has been around for a long time, and their releases are becoming a bit more formulaic. Most long-term BAP fans probably wouldn't consider this release to be their best from a musicality standpoint, but it's a decent BAP album.
The sound quality is good, but not the best SACD has to offer. There is a noticeable difference between the CD layer and the SACD layer on all the standard SACD hallmarks - better cymbals, more "presence," less edgyness, etc. However, most studio-recorded electric/electronic rock really doesn't jump out at you on SACD like acoustic or live-venue stuff does. There are notable exceptions to that rule, but this isn't one of them.
If you like BAP, you should get this disc. If you like rock, and you're open to non-English-language music, you would probably enjoy it.
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