AKINETÓN AO VIVO

In a country with excellent sax players, don't be afraid to face a group with two guys on this instrument. Akinetón Retard has two permanent members taking turns on tenor, baritone, soprano and alto saxophone. And these are the instruments responsible for the highpoints of this album: making catchy and memorable tunes; performing very unique and surprising rhythmic passages; and puting together many sound layers, that transit through fusion, heavy and/or symphonic prog.

It's spectacular how the instruments complement themselves. The saxophones have lots of space to perform, and there's no passages with that irritating ? IMO ? sax solos that fight to and swallow the other instruments. The solution they figured out to avoid this was to make very short solos. That applies to the other instruments. I truly dislike the works that overwhelms themselves on instrumental solos. Sounds to me as lack of inspiration to elaborate the composition(s).

Many complex and varied tempos and harmonies are present, ranging from calm to wild musicianship very quickly. It can take you some time to get used to. The vocals, very performatic, and with a generous dose of humour. The guitar player masters several techniques and arrangements, and drumming is dynamic. Vocals has a constant moderate funny feeling. Nonetheless, they can go very intense in other parts, close to prog metal sometimes, almost whispering once in a while, and/or lyric and clean.

They were very wise and smart when selecting the musics to make part of this act. Among with the wild stuff, there are some more accessible tracks. Like Blues em Re, with its pleasent and smooth mood. The others that goes more intimate and calm are Cansancio; Hawai; and Cocodrilos com Martini. Now I'll comment one particular track, Gansos, Patos y Gallinas. It starts with a delicious narration of some kind of sport, before exploring that incredible style I've mentioned. And on half of this track, remarkable sax riffs fully captures my attention. It's a great example of a style that I chose to denominate heavy jazz-prog. On this same track, the participation of the audience is vibrating. Another splendid sample of this style is the track Copenhaguen Astorba; the vocals have some brief parts when it gets almost prog metal. In other snippets vocals have a funny taste. This humorous aspect, along with the kind and spontaneous interactions between the band and the audiences, brings an incredible liveliness to the audition.

4.3 on a five-star scale.