ALQUILBENCIL

Badalona-based Catalan Hard/Fusion/Prog group.Alquibencil were put together in 1997 and the original line-up featured Carlos Rojo and Joan Santanach on guitars, Richard Pons on bass and Xavi Carbonell on drums.On their debut they were helped by sax player Oriol Jimenez and keyboardist Alex Alguacil on a couple of tracks.It was a self-titled private-released CD, which saw the light in 1998.

Alquibencil wouls take the rougher moments of KING CRIMSON and DJAM KARET and transform them into some very noise Experimental Rock blended with Hard Prog and Fusion, where the dual guitar attack dominates the whole atmosphere.This is completely raw material, a bit like early CEREBUS EFFECT or DEUS EX MACHINE with very sharp and often metallic guitars, where the music often loses its focus and becomes an endless journey of guitar jams with breaks, heavy riffing and powerful grooves.The first couple of tracks are very annoying to say the least with loose arrangements based on heavy guitars and a chaotic atmosphere overall.The later tracks though hold a bit of interest.The guitar work becomes more flexible with both psychedelic and groovy moments, the addition of keys and saxes add a nice jazzy color, while the presence of the very solid rhythm section is eventually evident.Moreover the band decided to throw in some fine melodies and delicate pianos at a few moments and, while the music remains highly atonal and edgy, these compositions sound more balanced.

Not paricularly recommended, this first Alquibencil work is more of a cool jamming session than a well-worked album and I can see it belonging in the collection of Experimental and Hard Prog fans, but no further than this.

Good news from Spain.

Alquilbencil is a Spanish band which I believe disbanded long time ago. They left behind two good albums. This is their debut album.

Their music is both instrumental and eclectic. That is eclectic as in all over the place & difficult to pinpoint. It is somewhere in the crossroad between Post Rock, Eclectic, Fusion, Space rock, Folk and Heavy Prog. With folk, I mean there is a lot of Spanish rhythms and passion. In short, this album takes the listener on a very lively ride with a lot of hills and valleys. Lively and passionate is the best labels I can put on the music too which goes from pastoral to full sound cascades throughout the album. Some, actually most of the music is also somber and mellow. The sound quality is also great too and really conveys the essence of this music.

The quality of the music is very good throughout. My only gripe is the lack of any really great tracks here. But this is still a very good album which I believe Post Rock fans in particular will love. Gosh, this band almost deserve a move over to that category.

I am very strict on my stars so three have to do. But I can see other reviewers find a new best friend in this album and it give full marks so check it out. This album will remain on my playlist for the next decades too.

3.5 stars

Alquilbencil are a very impressive band eager to leave their mark in the field of eclectic prog. "From Serengethi to Taklamakan" is their fantastic live album that shows the band's full potential and diverse interests in experimental rock. The opener 'Introduccio' is an effective high-spirited bluesy piece, something that wouldn't have been out of place in a Zappa big band album. Next comes 'La Presa', a track that starts quite heavy on the guitar and funky on the rhythm duo's dynamics: the Arabic undertones instilled in the melodic lines feel fresh and exciting, and they remain so in through the eerie and cosmic passages that follow all the way to the end. This is what it would be like if "Shamal"-era Gong and LTE collided into one single sonic source. 'Waiting Room' shifts to a very different timber, going for a reflective, slow pace sort of symphonic rock: this piece sounds like a mixture of WYWH-era Pink Floyd and "Snow Goose"-era Camel, plus Genesis nuances and The Enid-like orchestral ornaments thrown in for good measure. 'Hit' is a vivid exercise on Weather Report-inspired jazz-fusion, refurbished with a weird Crimsonian twist in the most powerful guitar parts and a flirtation with chamber-rock in the eerie interlude. 'Dire: From Serengheti to Taklamakan' gets quite ethnic from the very start: airs of Indian celebrations fill the air with those mesmeric lines played at unison on the sax and the synth, while the remaining instruments complete the theme in an abundantly dynamic fashion. The main theme is successively reconstructed on a slower tempo with a vibe heavily related to classic Zappa (including a shift to a happy-go-lucky tango portion). 'Fertil Crescent' starts on a soft, introspective note, somewhat Floydian: once the vocal section appears, things tighten up a little bit although the overall mood remains reflective and eerie. 'Estricnina' bears a sinister vibe in both the solemn passages and the extroverted ones, mostly due to the dissonant chord progressions and recurrent use of pipe organ sounds on the synthesizers. The inclusion of jazz-blues and circus interludes works as a humorous enhancement of the menacing overall tone. After the previous track's mocking terror, 'Serveix-me Un Altre Got De Vi' brings a very in-your-face jolly sense of fun that isn't too separated from the aforesaid track. The prevailing cha-cha-cha rhythm in the opening section is replaced by an apparently chaotic use of experimental jazz and chamber-rock. The track comes full circle with the cha-cha-cha's ultimate return. This piece is so weird that it could have been much better if only the musicians had found the key to contain the various ideas into a more integrated whole - it worked perfectly for 'Estricnina', it didn't totally work for this one. 'Coda' closes down the live set with a powerful mixture of jazz-rock (Weather Report-meets-Iceberg), heavy prog and subtle Crimsonian elements: the track's melodic scheme includes the 'Introduccio' theme. 'Çet' is the additional studio track placed at the end of this album's repertoire. Benefiting with the technical devices habitual in a recording studio environment, the guys of Alquilbencil feel free to explore their taste for space-rock and soaring psychedelia which hadn't appeared to often in the sundry nuances that were used in the live set. This piece is heavily cosmic, recapturing the nucleus of vintage space-rock and encapsulating it in a post-rock-friendly strategy. One might think that the label operators got mixed up and edited a Soma.Planet track in this Alquilbencil album. but no, this is really Alquilbencil, surprising us for the last time with their audacious eclecticism. "From Serengethi to Taklamakan" is a strong proof about the perennial vitality of prog rock. even if it has to be found in unusual places and beyond the musical realms of FK, PT and the like.

This first ALQUIBENCIL record is a good example o fthe noisy prog school appeared in Spain in the 1990´s (in the vein of Dificil Equilibrio, with whom they have played live), much in the vein of a fiery jazz rock, very much influenced by King Crimson, John Zorn or Primus. Lots of distorted guitars, fiery rhytms and aggressive vibes. Although being a short lived band, they had great influence at their time in the underground scene. Highly reccommended for those interested in the noisy side of prog; those interested in melodic songs, don´t try it.