PEQUEÑAS ANÉCDOTAS SOBRE LAS INSTITUCIONES

Longer, bigger, deeper, angrier, and much more progressive. This is one of Argentina's best progressive rock albums out there. Nevertheless, it wasn't a critically acclaimed effort. It was actually received with a lot of criticism at the time. The reason is that Argentina was expecting more charming acoustic folk. This is not folk, this is electric, political, biting, and quite eclectic. Luckily, people eventually began to appreciate this different album and it is now considered a classic that is more well known than the "Maquina de Hacer Pajaros" albums.

The album begins with the title track, which at first (apart from electric drums) sounds similar to the second album's opener, just much better. Later, it goes to a more urgent vocal style and after the second chorus you get electric strings, synthesizers, powerful electric guitar, mellotron, angry vocals, and all of that stuff that we progheads just gotta love. This is possibly my favorite song from the band.

"Tango en Segunda" starts only with vocals and virtuosic, yet subtle, electric piano running in the background with a slight tango element. Afterwards, there's a memorable and quite ununsual riff which goes up and down one fret at a time. After the theme plays out once, drums introduce a loud, nasty moog synthesizer that gets wilder until it reaches the end. It sounds as if Keith Emerson was invited to play with Mahavishnu Orchestra.

"El Show de los Muertos" is yet another dark song, featuring electric piano and the saxophone as main instruments. It is less frantic than the previous two pieces and seems somewhat influenced by Supertramp.

"Señor Tijeras" is once again another social/political song, now about censure. The album is actually somewhat of a concept album because it deals with all the 'institutions' that made up Argentina's oppressive government at the time. The lyrics are effective, describing a "mr. scissors" as the censurer cutting a woman's body in dramatic fashion. The music is slightly light-hearted and sinister at the same time. Lots of minimoogs here.

"Pequeñas Delicias de la vida Conyugal" . This is like the catchiest thing ever, not only vocal-wise, but also due to that playful synthesizer theme during the verses.

The next two tracks are very interesting, but what comes next is special, a full instrumental inspired by the "Rock Progresivo Italiano" movement. The music is dynamic and features plenty of interesting musical ideas in its six minutes. I especially love the guitar solo in the beginning and the violin breakdown in the middle.

"Para Quien Canto Yo Entonces" is an acoustic and bluesy folk tune that closes the actual album. Quite pleasant with nice harmonica lines which come across as soulful. This was the last album because the last two tracks were too political during a difficult time before the beginning of the "dirty war"

"Juan Represion" is about police oppression. Musically it is not progressive, but it has excellent lyrics and a beautiful fadeout while "Botas Locas" describe Charly's feelings of alienation when being in the military (the lyrics are apparently not true, because Charly got himself out by feigning to be crazy). Anyways, the music for this track is uptempo acoustic music with Charly harmonizing with himself on vocals. It has catchy choruses.

Highly recommended for Latin Rock collectors and still recommended to any symphonic prog lovers.