MITOS DE UNA RESURRECCIÓN

1870 (Mil ochocientos setenta in letters) is the year of Count of Lautreamont's death, and it is also the name of this Mexican avant-prog ensemble who have just released their debut album "Mitos de una Resurrección" in November 2008. This is a concept-album based on Lautreamont's poetry, and since this guy was a true pioneer of modern avant-garde literature, it only makes perfect sense that a band devoted to the dark, challenging meanderings of RIO and chamber-rock traditions should be in charge of this sort of musical enterprise. The Francophone schools of early Art Zoyd and early Univers Zero, as well as compatriot RIO pioneering ensemble Nazca are strong inspirational figures for 1870, but definitely this band can also instill a contemporary trend of their own with their gusto for electronic sources of deconstruction and panache for academic minimalism: these former options are clearly noticeable in the important presence of synth layers and digital ornaments in order to state a weird dynamics of tension and mystery. There are moments in which 1870 seems happy to leave the habitual standards of chamber-rock and turn their heads into the uneasy textures that we take fro granted in Kluster and Oxomaxoma albums. 'Puerta Abierta' opens the door for us to enter this occasion for a different aesthetic experience through an exquisite fanfare that soon enough expands into a dissonant architectonics. From minute 3 onwards, the disturbing nuances come to the fore and dominate the track's last section. The segued follower 'Canto Primero (Quiera el Cielo.)' brings a lovely landscape of pure sonic disconnection. The madness in there is enhanced by the falsetto that emulates a demented child (Dadaistic unrest?, surrealistic humor?, both?), and later on, by a tortured oboe solo that, in its solitude, generates a Spartan delirium with harsh passion. This is cerebral music, of course, yet sensitive to the concerns of the human heart from its abstracted stance. The next piece is the namesake one, occupying a 12 ¾ minute span. If you thought you already knew the most outrageous side of 1870, you weren't precisely right - now it is when the real deal begins to show unabashedly. The digital sonic displays oscillate among the industrial and the cosmic, with the woodwind and brass layers clothing the melodic potential with a mesmeric use of minimal traces. At some point, the use of percussive resources states a pulsation that softly augments the mysterious darkness that by now reigns supreme. 'El Ceremonial' goes on emphasizing the industrial element and takes it to a weird climax via the combination of cacophony and chaos on multiple synths. When the Cor Angalis and French horn enter in, an interesting struggle begins between these wind instruments' autumnal connotations and the persistent pulsating set of electronic keyboards. Right before getting at the 7 ½ minute mark, an interlude of piano, theremin and horns gets in to bring a transition toward the intense finale. Now you really know 1870! 'Canto Segundo (Allí, en el Bosquecillo.)' resumes the minimalistic approach and incluyes some recitations. The gradual climax extended through the track's final 2 ½ minutes feature a compelling call for the hermaphrodite to never wake up. 'Una Vendetta' closes down the album wit hs sort of recapitulation of the prevalent moods in tracks 1-3. The wind ensemble shines like never before in the album, alternating languid and playful passages at ease. The track's second half consolidates the installation of various momentums of neurosis and creepiness, ultimately arriving at an electronic coda pretty much a-la krautrock. "Mitos de una Resurrección" is a solid work of avant- prog for the new millennium: the work of 1870 is not one I would recommend to the regular prog fan, but it is something to be deeply cherished by the true lover of the weirdest kinds of avant-garde and free form music.