TARANTULA

TARANTULA was amongst the first progressive rock bands to emerge in Spain along with bands like Tirana, Bloque and Granada after the iron grip of Franco's dictatorship finally ended in 1975 and allowed the Spanish music scene to play catch up its neighbors to the east and to the north. The band was created and led by keyboardist Vicente Guillot who released two rather unimaginatively named albums TARANTULA I (1976) and TARANTULA II (1978) each with completely different lineups except for Guillot himself. This first album was a quartet of musicians that also included lead vocalist Rafael Cabrera, guitarist M.G. Peydró, bassist José Pereira and drummer Emilio Santonja.

While bands like Tirana were developing a sound that mixed local flavors with the exotic prog rock visionary possibilities, TARANTULA seemed to be looking towards the Italian scene for its inspiration most likely due to the fact that the Spanish and Italian languages have the same sort of rhythmic flow and are closely related linguistically speaking. TARANTULA's debut album is a fully fueled symphonic prog workout dominated by the stellar keyboard gymnastics and accompanied by Rafael Cabrera's powerful operatic performances. While the keys give a wink and a nod to Italian classic acts such as Le Orme, the vocals evoke more of a PFM or Banco sort of bombast whereas the rest of the band pretty much follows suit.

The amazing thing about TARANTULA's debut is that they neither sound original nor totally derivative but always sound pleasant yet rarely evoke a sense of awe either. In fact despite this album being exquisitely performed and completely listenable, it exudes a sense of awkwardness as it doesn't really know where it's going and how to stay put. While the opening "Recurerdos" adopts all of the Italian symphonic prog playbook tricks which even at times sounds like it's heading into AOR territory, the band also takes sudden nosedives into jittery hard rock periods that sound a bit like early Osanna with decently performed prog rock workouts with caffeinated tempos including stellar guitar workouts. While the compositions aren't exactly simplistic, they don't exactly jump into mind numbing complexities either.

The tracks are all quite melodic and find pleasant doses of mellotron soaked cheeriness interchange with fiery guitar riffs, galloping bass lines and emotive and even heart wrenching drama in the vocal department. TARANTULA is perhaps the most Italian sounding band from Spain that i've encountered yet. The true star on board here in addition to Cabrera's domain as lead vocalist is clearly the majesty of Guillot's fine keyboard playing as he tackles a wide spectrum of sounds that imitate the Baroque flavors of Bach as well as the finger-breaking workouts of Keith Emerson. Overall the album feels a bit anachronistic like it emerged from the 1972-73 timeline rather than the disco and punk years of 1976 but then again Spain was still emerging from its bubble so all is forgiven in that department.


While some claim TARANTULA to be one of the greats of Spanish prog, i tend to disagree as they didn't quite know how to deliver a nice flowing album that didn't meander all over the place. While the music is by no means bad and contains many a great melody on board, the band just seemed a few steps too late to the party and never really caught up to the big boy's game. Had they succeeded in creating a unique musical paradigm that set them apart from their influences perhaps they would be more renowned for their musical endeavors. TARANTULA I is defiantly the more progressive of the two albums released as the band with a completely new lineup moved into the more accessible arenas of hard rock also known as Rock Urbano Español but didn't totally give up the progressive touches. Decent album just not one of the top picks of the era.