The album Delicate Flames Of Desire is without a doubt one of the best albums released in 2003. It is not without reason that Karnataka was elected in almost every category during the Classic Rock Association. The band won in the categories “Best Band”, “Best Female Singer” and “Best Album”. This is why my expectations for their DVD, Live In The USA were pretty high.

At first there were some minor disappointments to cope with, looking at the DVD. For one I noticed that the tracklist on this new release featured only four different tracks in comparison to last years DVD-release, Karnataka In Concert. Watching the entire concert-registration made me change my opinion. Because this similarity in tracks nicely shows how the tracks have developed withing the timespan of only one year. Especially the tracks from Delicate Flames Of Desire sound so much better than the (early) versions that were played on the previous DVD.

Karnataka is probably best know for the beautiful vocals of Rachel Jones. Her voice has an incredible reach and she really knows how to work this talent. Her presentation together with Anne-Marie Helder (vocals and flute) is very expressive and contrasts with the overal modest presentation of the rest of the band.

Both are well worth watching. The footage on the DVD is quite clear although the use of stage lights could have been a bit better. The video-registration is rather basic. Some overall shots, some close-ups, all very well balanced. The changes of colour and black and white video footage proves to be quite a successful format, especially because the black and white stuff is shot in a more frivolous way. As usual with Classic Rock Production releases there are fifteen to thirty second interviews between some of the tracks. Although I’m usually not a big fan of this format, the interviews are so short that they do not bother me that much. Without these short intermissions we’d probably be listening to up to thirty seconds of applause from the crowd.

There are no further extra’s or bonus material on the DVD. After all the disappointing extra’s I had to watch the last couple of months on several other DVD’s, this might as well be considered as positive. In conclusion: this is a nice DVD, with a crystal clear sound. Even if you have the Karnataka In Concert DVD, this new release is absolutely worth buying. If you don’t you’re better off buying Live In USA.