15 October 2005

LUNA NEGRA/SMOGLESS RECORDS
Sampler 2001 Mexico

1 - MUSICA D'REPUESTO 'Baile de Payasos'
We start off with kettle drums bounding away as flutes dance around, the drumkit skitters and a piano tinkles about, next up a wood block xylophone trounces in and then it breaks off into a massed chorus of strings from a synth (touching mellotron moments of grandeur) adding a healthy dose of tasteful windwork. A RIO "wassup!"

Very majestic, the progression swells to a nice crescendo, massed choirs later on..

2 - OMNI 'Contracorriente'
Lilting in like a soft summer wind for 20 seconds this gives us a chunk of breezy prog. Funky without being overbearing. Doesn't stop rolling, kind of like Canterbury in an odd way with how it carries itself. Perhaps some hints of Crucis, maybe?

3 - PERFUME DE MUJER 'Liborio'
Shouldn't need more words, they are great and this is a decent syncopated cut with distinctly spacey and heavy jam-out moments. Some references to the Italian Pop! Nice guitar work and busy drumming, includes a far-out excursion in the middle. Fusion with a little more latitude.. Weather Report could have been an inflluence.

4 - OXOMAXOMA 'X Musica'
Light and airy with an edge. Dreamy. The album title translates to "Spirits in Red and Black." Kind of ethereal, could be a more down to earth 4AD sound with Spanish flavor in the guitar department and the vocals, of course. Halfway through we jump off that bridge and get reverb on guitars, almost tortured vocals - Peter Hammill lite.

5 - ALTAIR 'Oracion del ermitaño'
Out there baby, yeah, that's what's up - think about the cosmos for a minuet..

6 - NARANJA MECANICA 'Rosa de Corcho'
Complex composition with hairpin turns and a sometimes metal edge to the guitar. Driving, off-kilter romp with a flute reminiscent of Brian Jackson on Gil Scott-Heron's 70's output. Tight, a healthy smattering of RIO and Zappa influences. Well done and quite engaging for the duration. Towards the end, there are sections which last for a few seconds that feed you the classic symphonic progressive vibe we know and love and then flips the script over and back and over and back then drops off a cliff.

7 - BANDA ELASTICA 'Siete con titulo'
Would not be out of place on ZNR's "Barricades 3" or a Julverne album if they were drunk. Nice neo-classical cum avant-garde approach with sustaining violin notes in front of a plinky-plonk piano and some dude brazenly snorting "excuse me sir, excuse me sir." What next you ask after an intro like that? Think of Art Zoyd improvising, yes! And that's not all folks... Frith and Kaiser might have had friends like these..

8) JOSÉ LUIS FERNANDEZ LEDESMA 'Amnesia'
Hello Spanish Univers Zero by way of News From Babel plus thick undulating electronically creeping basslines and add your best Jauniaux-styled vocals..
...one word - AWESOME. Then there is a whole jumble of male vocalese chiming in between her outbursts. Horns loop about as the mid-section goes to an 'overheard conversation in the next room' mode and then flips us back to the thickness & stops, how sad, it should have gone on forever and ever into never neverland (or at least until Peter Pan showed up wearing black tights). `';o( - but mostly `';o)

9 - GUILLERMO FRAGOSO
Thick drums, treated flutes and you're tied to a pole being mind-chomped by natives on an island far, far away from here. Really tropical for Venus, that's for sure!

10 - THE HIGH FIDELITY ORCHESTRA
Hyped up and sinuous. Pointillated guitar streaks, 'boxing match' bass lines, clattering cymbals off a jittery kit paves the way for a Downtown-esque escapade, tear the roof off your Escalade - you'll fly through town bopping your head as this shreds and people will have to gawk and break their rubbernecks gasping "what the f..?!?!" Sinister is an understatement. Spiraling madness ensues, it all speeds up unabashedly until..

11 - MUROS DE AGUA 'Ojos de Cóndor'
Can't place this yet, but it's good. First half is attentive fusion stylings building into the second part where they max and relax a bit in the more outré territory of purple grasshoppers. Wouldn't be out of place in Kent during the mid-70's. This one lets you breathe and ponder a bit like a solo album.

12 - EL TEMPLO DEL DINERO 'El Ángel del Mar'
Throbbing beginning with the energy levels of punk, guitar drills you and then chills out to pose lyrical questions on the meaning of life. After a couple phrases, there is a call and response pattern with a mute partner which goes back to the initial attack for a few bars and then asks open ended spiritual queries. Mahavishnu possessed ripping comes in for the third go round. Did I mention that the drummer brings in a halo around this whole thing keeping the rhythm tight? Perhaps a cross between Mclaughlin and Santana-like fusion-era material.

13 - ULISES 'Primum Gradum Certituudinis"
Hand drums, piano, tambourine, creepy guitar ecstasy. Say hello to an updated Spanish Ash Ra Tempel playing for free at an all-night Rainbow Gathering. Slow-motion fire-eaters would love this one!!

14 - EREHÍA 'Rito'
Thump the drums, in your face violin gives sway to cymbals and then a few Present-ish guitar lines come in, back to the cymbals, add violin, woodblock, drum kit... RIO! Some earth bass here and there, a little schizophrenia never hurt anyone of us, has it? Factor in some Latin Univers Zero while we're at it - this cut is VERY busy & it WORKS!

15 - KATARSIS '5" Romance'
Let's not forget our King Crimson flavored Frippoid hot sauce, shall we? Straight up.

16 - EL DIABLO 'Huautla'
To cool us off, the wrap-up is a tasty piece of echo-cake, slow and mellow. Guitar is overlaid on itself like some early Steve Tibbetts while heavy toms intermingled with deft cymbal action calls us up to heaven. What's that, you raging boddhisattva? Uh-huh, sounds like a sitar, yum. Bass underpinning is almost not noticeable as single notes, more like waves of bliss lulling out of this fine repertoire. Come "Om" to Luna Negra, they'll leave the porch light on for you so that you can find your way down from the stratosphere.... and to each a lightly flute-kissed good night goodbye.

All in all, every tune rocks well and the sampler plays like an entire album proper.

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