First of all, can I say how refreshing it is to come across a band with an easy to navigate, comprehensive website. A reviewers job is made so much easier by having all the information to hand, and when we receive a promo package containing nothing more than a CD and a covering letter, about the first thing we do is go to the website.
Chione have put real thought into their site - it's full of clear information, tons of photos, and is generally one of the best laid out band sites I've seen of late. Top marks to whoever put it together - they've even overlaid the images on the photo page, which is well beyond basic website design (unless it was an accident). In fact, there is so much info on the website that I'm going to concentrate almost entirely on the sound in this review - if you read through this review and like what you hear, you should head straight for chione.com for all the facts about the band themselves...

Chione have the distinct pleasure of coming from Liverpool, a city not exactly unknown for it's past success in raising bands to stardom. Not that I would dream of comparing Chione to The Beatles, you understand! They are a trio, made up of Karl on Acoustic guitar, Natalie on vocals and Tom providing the harmonies. Between them, they have a long background and interest in music, and this certainly shows in their songs. They describe themselves as "Electro-Latin Pop" - Spanish acoustic mixed with a rich electric guitar! This is really hard to visualise and sounds much better than I thought it would. In fact, I was very pleasently surprised all round. This doesn't happen very often but, on the strength of this demo, I find myself wanting to go to the next gig to see how they sound live… Send us some details, guys!
For the purposes of this review, I listened to the Chione CD "A Better Day", which confusingly listed only 3 tracks on the cover but 5 on the CD itself.

Natalie is very much the front person for the band, and at 22 is in the middle of the group in terms of age - but wow, does her voice deny this. We've come to expect a certain sound from the younger music set, but Natalie's voice seems to come from a much older, more experienced singer. From looking at the photos on the website I had a picture in my mind of what she would sound like, but was I wrong - for such a young singer, her voice is nothing short of beautiful; if I didn't know better, I would swear I was listening to somebody with at least 20 years more experience in her art. Plus, and I'm sorry to say that the pop industry really is shallow enough to pay attention to these things, Natalie has also got the right look to front a modern band. On her page of the website she looks every bit the professional pop star, quite at home with a microphone, but then the photo on the press quotes page shows her as a sultry young woman instead of an unreachable pop star. A lot of bands forget that image is just as important to a lot of the audience as the music.

Karl, at 23 the oldest of the three, supplies the acoustic guitar. Where Natalie wows the audience with her voice, Karl provides the same response for the backing. It is rare to find somebody who can play this well - although difficult to describe (mainly due to the fact that most well known guitarists are of the Dire Straits or Clapton ilk, and Karl describes his forte as Spanish guitar with rock influences), a quick listen will be enough to convince you of his obvious talent.

Chione have received airplay on BBC Radio Merseyside, and as a result have had numerous management offers - from both Britain and America - which they are sifting through. So far, none has seemed quite right for them. I don't find this remotely surprising - this is some of the most professional material I have heard in a long time, real chart stuff. The band offer music which defies their years and really shows how much practice and experience has been crammed into their lives. Keep it up guys - don't rush into picking a management company, take your time and select somebody who will push you in the direction you want to go. You have something really special and quite unusual here, and the public WILL love it. You just need to keep pushing, and convince a brainwashed younger audience that there is more to music than manufactured pop stars...