Gaia
The Final Question EP
6.3
The female fronted Floridian foursome known as Gaia are a young band with a massive vision, as evident on their self-released debut EP The Final Question. Nonetheless, only a few short moments after the first of three tracks offered begins to play, you realize that their ambition exceeds their actual ability as those big ideas crumble in the clutches of their inexperienced hands, making for a rough and sometimes awkward listen. Not to say that the song arrangements themselves aren’t impressive, however, Gaia just don’t possess the tightness of a group that has performed together for years. On an individual basis, each member seems to execute their assigned parts without too many troubles, but when combined there is an overall lack of cohesion between the quartet that sends The Final Question into a speedy downward spiral.
Considering that Gaia never actually seem to settle on any particular foundation or predictable base genre, it’s somewhat of a burden trying to arrive at a solid conclusion as how to classify The Final Question. With a favorable balance between progressively technical music and the shy soft voice of Dominique Garrao that occasionally reminds me of Natalie Merchant, Gaia briefly draw a sort of resemblance (and perhaps influence) to an amateur Amaran or After Forever, even if such comparisons are very slight. An array of stylistic accents such as tribal drums, atmospheric folk acoustics, and touches of cello creep into the compositions, adding a bit of additional flavor to the mix.
While Gaia could have quite a glowing career ahead of them, only time will tell if they can work together as a unit and iron out the wrinkles that are presently preventing them from pulling off the sound that they’re aiming for. Though The Final Question easily gets an ‘A’ for effort, in the end the EP barely earns a low ‘C’ for achievement. If you have the patience to sit through the calamity of clashing instrumentation and an expected less than average demo production, then Gaia are certainly an act worth your time.
