A-DIOS

The more you dig into the obscurity bins of bands from other nations it just becomes so clear that many musicians around the globe were on the same wavelength even if they were totally unaware of what was going on elsewhere long before the internet existed. Just take some band names for example. There was a Magma in not only France but Germany and Argentina. There was an Italian Camel before the English one. There was a Spanish Gong about the same time as the more famous one with Daevid Allen and a band called The Focus formed the same year as the more famous Dutch Focus. Well if you thought the famous English Genesis was the only game in town then think again. This GÉNESIS came from the Colombian city of Bogota but to differentiate it's usually called GÉNESIS DE COLOMBIA however in 1983 due to the amazing popularity of the English band, changed its name completely to Maiz. The band name has also been written as GENE-SiS.

Like many European counterparts, this band started out in a hippie commune in the southern enclave of Bogota near the Monastery of the Benedictine Monks in 1972 and became one of the best known of the first generation of Colombian rock that mixed rock with the flavors of traditional Colombia folk music. Generally speaking this band was the equivalent of Chile's Los Jaivas with a strong emphasis on traditional Andean sounds mixed with global rock elements but in the beginning the band was more interested in the catchy cumbia sounds of Colombia's northern Caribbean coast. This project was primarily driven by Humberto Monroy (vocalist, composer, strings, harmonica, zampoña) who was a member of another band called Los Speakers but as the experimental 70s rolled on even remote areas in Latin America were catching wind of the international prog and psych scenes. There are obviously other musicians contributing since there are some horn sounds as well as a violin.

GÉNESIS DE COLOMBIA seems to have released two albums simply titled GÉNESIS, one in 1972 which is also known as "A-dios" and a second eponymous album in 1974 without the accent over the first "e." While info about this band is a bit limited it appears that the lineup for this album included Monroy along with Edgar Restrepo Caro (drums), Federico Taborda "Sibius" (percussion), Tania Moreno (percussion), Armando Narváez (guitar) and possibly Jorge Latorre also on drums. I cannot find out if these musicians appeared uniformly on this album or it was a collective of a rotating cast, nevertheless the album is a consistent mix of catchy folk pop that takes the infectious Caribbean traditional sounds and marries them with rock and pop of other parts of the world, most notably the English speaking nations. This debut consists of both originals and covers with the most recognizable being "La Casa Donde Nace El Sol" which is a Spanish language cover of The Animals' classic hit "House Of The Rising Sun."

While noted as being a prog folk band on later releases, the more complex elements of prog are largely absent on this debut as at this stage the band delivered a Colombian folk infused style of psychedelic pop rock that was popular during the 60s in the US, UK and Europe. Generally speaking every single track on this one is infectiously catchy with strong melodic hooks, excellent instrumental interplay and a larger than life band sound that allows all types of indigenous instruments to fill the cracks between the standard rock instrumentation. While the tunes have strong beefy hooks they aren't always predictable as there are hairpin turns and other surprises. As expected for this time in Latin America, all lyrics are delivered in the Spanish language but for those who speak the language will encounter typical rock subject matter in the typical upbeat Latin American joie de vivre.

This is a pretty catchy album that once you start playing you can't stop. The tracks are all fairly unique and none really mimic the other. Perhaps there are other covers that i'm not aware of but since there are no songwriting credits i can only surmise. Whatever the case this music is beautiful and seamlessly blends the local flavors with the international. Sounding somewhat like Argentina's Sui Generis at its folkiest and like those indigenous pan flute groups as well, it's no wonder why GÉNESIS DE COLOMBIA emerged as one of Colombia's most popular pop rock groups. While prog is mostly absent from this one, i can't help but be mesmerized by the strong pop hooks and the nice optimistic zeitgeist of the era. Pretty cool actually.