ACONCAGUA

Named after the Ande's second highest peak (if memory serves me correctly), this album is somewhat of a deception for me. Most progheads will point the prdecessor Alturas as their best work ( I personally prefer their 75 to 79 period) but this one is rather poor especially in the inspiration department. If my informations are correct , they were living in France at the time (the album was recorded in Paris) and maybe they were not all that happy there , as they were fleeing the Pinochet regime and had moved away from Argentina (also dictatorial in those years) - so maybe they were homesick. All supputations aside , there are two reworkings from older numbers that do not make the original obsolete and most of the shorter numbers are made in a "Business -As -Usual"manner and even the longer final track is not really up to par. Only my respect for this great and otherwise innovative band stops me from rating this album lower.

Aconcagua is widely perceived as a backward step in the Los Jaivas journey, and justifiably so, for it is the weakest in the run of albums from 1975 to 1984 (significantly trumped by the preceeding trio of Los Jaivas (El Indio), Cancion Del Sur and Alturas De Macchu Picchu as well as its successor the double album Obras De Violeta Parra). Nonetheless for all its relative "simplicity" it does contain some beautiful folk music.

The opening title track is delicious, with heartfelt vocals, glorious dancing flutes, and clever use of electric guitar and Andean mandolin (charanga) to build the mood. And the second track, Desde Un Barril starts off with an interesting combination of Jew's harp and Moog (I swear it) and has a "main body" that is rhythmically challenging, with some nice piano flourishes and muscular bass work (even a brief solo) before more joyous flute returns.

Unfortunately from that point on, the album is a pretty pop-oriented presentation of some great folk music. Debajo De La Higueras and the instrumentals Takirari Del Puerto and Huairuro are all the kinds of song that Las Jaivas could play in their sleep. A remake of Corre Que Te Pillo (from the Todos Juntos album recorded a decade earlier) is better though and emphasizes the shift in the band's sound over the years. This is a much more taut version than the original with prominent piano, electric guitar and synth brass! Despite some more challenging moments including some great Gabriel Parra drum excursions, it does lack the charm of the infinitely more naive original.

I should say that again there are two different versions of this album, as far as I know, and my version omits the 1982 re-recording of the superb Todos Juntos track (rather disappointingly, as it is my favourite song in the Spanish language), in favour of Manbo Del Machaguay, which is a catchy blend of blistering electric guitar, energetic drumming and traditional flutes.

I would recommend that you come to this one only after you've fallen in love with the other, more progressive albums that surround it. And perhaps a low level of expectation might just leave you enjoying its handful of pleasant surprises! ... 51% on the MPV scale

Los Jaivas forgot about the prog elements they incorporated into their Andean folk music during their previous album Alturas De Machu Pichu which was undeniably their best effort so far.

As they paid tribute to the best known Inca archeological site in their previous work, this one is titled with the name of the highest mountain from the American continent (almost 7,000 meters). Located in Argentina where the band resided for about four years (73 - 77).

This album recorded in Paris (as their previous one) will be the start of important touring all over Europe, adding Scandinavia to the number of countries they have already visited there. But almost no country from Western Europe would be forgotten during their European life (even small Belgium was visited)!

This album is not as good as "Machu Pichu". The good "Desde Un Barrial" sits together with the worse which is represented with "Debajo de las Higueras". Really painful "melody". A typical Latin American song. Gosh! The next key is seriously needed. And you might as well hit the same one (or maybe double next will do) because the instrumental "Takirari del Puerto" is not good either.

My version of this album features "Mambo De Machaguay" (instead of the reworked version of "Todos Juntos"). When I looked at the title, I was expecting nothing great but it is a solid rocking number with superb electric guitar. One of my fave here.

This version is also a reworked one. The original was released as a single in 1976 and can also be found on a compilation album from 1980 simply called "Mambo De Machaguay". This version is far much better than its original counterpart and certainly deserves some attention. It is a song from the Peruvian folklore named from a small village in the South of Peru.

The band is certainly out of steam in terms of compositions. This album is very short (as usual) and almost fifteen minutes are dedicated to two reworked songs. OK, these were good ones but out of thirty five minutes, this makes it almost fifty per cent of non original work!

The long closing number (another one of their habits) was my favourite track from their second album. This lengthy version was maybe not the best thing to do. It denaturizes the original with the addition of some mariachi oriented trumpets which are not really my cup of tea! But electric guitar is pretty good.

"Aconcagua" is not a bad album but two stars sounds as the maximum rating.

ACONAGUA is not only the highest mountain in the Andes mountain range in South America but a 6,960 m / 22,837 ft above sea level, it is also the highest peak in all of the Americas. In fact it also has the distinction of being the highest mountain outside of Asia and the highest in both the Western hemisphere as well as the Southern hemisphere, so it's no doubt this mighty mountain is the subject matter of legends and mythology spanning millennia back through countless South American empires and Indigenous culture significance. Therefore it's little wonder that LOS JAIVAS chose it as the title of an album.

The next album to follow the massively successful "Alturas de Machu Pacchu," the content on the material was actually created prior to that album and primarily brought together from a number of songs that were written during the band's European tour (the band was based out of Paris since 1977's coup in Chile). This was actually supposed to be the album that followed 1979's "Los Sueños de América" but due to the insistence of Daniel Camino who convinced the band to put all its other projects aside and work on a concept album about Peru's most famous archeological site. The result was that a loose number of floating songs accumulated but deemed of high enough quality that the band still wanted to use them.

In essence of compilation of flotsam of jetsam from the late 70s and early 80s, ACONAGUA throws it all together as an album's worth of LOS JAVIAS material but that doesn't mean it's not some mighty good catchy music on it. On the contrary, while not as focused on the progressive rock aspects as its predecessor, if taken as the album that musically precedes "Alturas," ACONAGUA is an excellent slice of Rock andino, Indigenous Andean music, Taquirari ( a highly syncopated traditional music of Bolivia), rock and folk music and while the prog aspects aren't nearly as pronounced as "Alturas," they're not completely absent either. ACONAGUA features the same lineup as on "Alturas" and the tracks are all either archival ones and re-recordings of old songs with a few new songs thrown in at the last minute.

One of the last tracks to be recorded was the opening title track which was inspired by the many sightings of flying in and out of Santiago, Chile. The mountain is located only a short distance away from the Chilean capital. The festive melting pot of Latin American musical sounds and styles pretty much summarizes the album's mission which is sort of a like a musical ambassador for all things Latin American brought together under one roof. While prog purist's may sneer at the mere lack of keyboard solos and moments of European influences, the album is a treasure trove of melding Latin American traditional music sounds in a feat of contemporaneous glory all the while adding elements of rock and Western folk throughout the album's rather short playing time of just under 34 minutes in the form of seven tracks.

Noteworthy is the beautiful "Debajo de las Higueras" features wild classical piano runs in cahoots with the thundering bravado of a Mexican trumpet section as well as delivering the main melody on an electric guitar. "Takirari Del Puerto" takes on a Caribbean vibe only mixed with Andean folk music and instrumentation. The highlight is perhaps the lengthy closing "COrre Que Te Pillo" which at almost 10 minutes in length was actually recorded as a B-side as far back in 1973 and resurrected and re-recorded into an extended powerhouse Indigenous folk meets rock extravaganza. The track is basically a lengthy jam session with moments of repetitive cyclical looping for a few improvisational ideas to float around. The use of classical piano allows a nice fusion sound. Despite complexities involved the track sounds as festive and inviting as the rest of the album with a lively fiesta of the soul sort of exuberance to it.

For being a mere collection of loose track floating around for years with a few newbies recorded to top it off, ACONCAGUA is actually an infectiously beautiful album and an ethnomusicologist's dream come true with references to many styles of ethnic folk music of the Southern Hemisphere as well as adding Western aspects of rock guitar and classical piano. The band was a well-oiled machine and clearly made these tracks more lively through the re-recording process than they ever could've possibly been before. When taken into context as to this being a compilation of previously unreleased material and not the proper followup to "Alturas de Machu PIcchu" then this will make a lot more sense in its relationship to the albums that bookend it. As for my ears i find this to be a brilliantly uplifting album. The album has been released two distinct album covers. My favorite is the one with the band all gathered in the High Andes with all their instruments giving a peak performance!