HUMANOS

''En el hospicio'' ended up to a be a pretty succesful album commercially speaking, but what set Pastoral apart from the other rock groups in the country was the addition of deeply thoughtful lyrics, dealing with death, madness or self-destruction.The pessimistic approach of the band continues with ''Humanos'', the 76' album released on Cabal, another effort of a humanistic lyrical content around death and existence.De Michele and Erausquin were surrounded by the top of the tops in this album, Charly García plays keyboards, Crucis' Pino Marrone is on guitar, Hugo Villareal plays the bass, Osvaldo López of Luis Alberto Spinetta fame and Oscar Moro are the drummers, a member of La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros and Serú Girán, composer Gustavo Beytelmann comes on piano and orchestrations and Guillermo Conte plays also drums in one track.''Humanos'' was recorded at Studio Audion in September 1976.

While the atmosphere sounds more or less the same as in the second album, the music has some big differences compared to the rural soundscapes of the previous years.The duo of De Michele and Erausquin had sunk into a world of refined, lush orchestral textures, highlighted by a dominant string section, to be combined with the acoustic guitars and the smooth rhythm section.The result reminds me of the works of Italian singers/songwriters like LUCIO BATTISTI, struggling to find some space for instrumental parts, trying to come up with moments of a proggy attitude, but eventually fading into the labyrinth of elaborate arrangements and artistic melodies.Despite the presence of the elite of Argentinian prog stars, the music is rather easy-going and once more the lyrical parts and the beautiful vocals of De Michele and Erausquin are the driving forces of yet another Pastoral album.The tracks contain some light flute parts, the display of piano lines and the cinematic power of an orchestral background, making this one a decent flirt with the Italian Prog Pop scene.The acoustic themes are pretty dominant with some mellow electric guitars in a supporting role, but the album has somewhat moved away from the folky ovetones of the debut for the sake of a more melodic Psych/orchestral sound.The arrangements and vocal harmonies remain pretty good and the tracks are memorable, but the true progressive value of the album is a matter of discussion.

Some sort of vocal-based Orchestral Psych Pop is what I hear in ''Humanos''.Great music for fans of compact songwriting, definitely recommended, just don't expect a deep progressive content as this one supposed to contain.