by Jim BrenholtsBelle Alliance is a strong progressive rock album from Ashra -- Manuel Göttsching, Harald Grosskopf, and Lutz Ulbrich. There are lots of influences at work on this album. There are punk rock attitudes, ska guitar riffs, Berlin school sequences, jazz overtones, and ambient atmospheres. The trio pulls most of it together and it almost hits home. It is like a fly ball to the warning track of the deepest part of center field. It is an impressive effort, but it is still an out. Göttsching, Grosskopf, and Ulbrich have spread themselves too thin. It is not an unpleasant effort. It just lacks spirit.