GUSANO MECANICO

This one came as a big surprise to me, remembering the low rating it has i wasn't expecting anything actually. A while ago i managed to listen to a video posted in our respectable forum, and although the quality was poor something grabed me, what i remember hearing between the lines is great guitar, fast rhythm and some nice percussion. Placing this one on my turntable, i knew my instincts were right, all the things i remembered turned out to be true and more.

This magnificent trio from Bolivia were much more influenced by the playing of artists like Hendrix, Blackmore and Budgie rather than the progressive rock presented by Yes or ELP, they just wanna rock. The music is leaning heavily on the wild guitar played by Jose Eugenio leaving drummer Alvaro Cordova no choice but to follow him on their quest to fast-madness city. The music is mainly going on one direction and is not trying to branch out to much, they are certainly not trying to be the world's biggest rock band, although they do have the right chops for it. The compositions here were written as guide lines to the band to jam on, the riffs are fast and rocky and always leading to some crazy jaming with killer guitar soloing. A nother refreshing addition are the percussions accompanying the music and giving it a southern american tribal vibe, really cool although in some cases are useless and does not add anything, they should have censored it a little bit to a greater effect, but i don't mind, it is better than not having it at all.

What we have here in this short LP are six compositions, all are played with enormous amount of energy and passion. The playing is fast by all members and even if the rhythm is slowing down the drums are still filling the gaps with some great drum fills. Drums are always improvising and always doing something, never just providing a beat, which can come out a little tedious at times, That doesn't mean the musicians are just pounding away without consideration, the compositions are good and the playing is still very good. Guitars has some good riffing and the solos are furious and fiery, classic 70's stuff! Oh ...I like it. "Pachacuttec" is the album's opener and although it starts very promising, the band just didn't know how to go from one idea to the next so they just faded away in the middle of the song and turned right away with something different, stating that they weren't that creative or experienced in writing an effective essential prog piece, still as a whole this track actually works fine and the music is good. "Gusano Mecanico" the album's title song can be considered as the highlight and their most progy track, since it does switch from one part to the other and have an overall progy feel. Since the drums are filling an importanat role here, the band thought it would be wise to include a drum solo track, like we didn't hear enough drums already. I'm glad it didn't lasted more than 3 minutes, as good as it is. The closing track actually shows some diversity, featuring a jazzy tune and a more relaxed atmosphere, with some nice piano.

The album has "debut" written all over it, since it is fun, energetic but still contains all the mistakes a band can do on their first album, which is fine and acceptable. They should have worked on and polished their compositions more, before recording the album. But still the album is a lot of fun to listen to, so if you are a guitar freak or just like high energy music without being so progressive, this is a good find. I can understand the 3 stars rating in this case but i gotta give them a little bit more credit than they got, since this is very enjoyable and my kind of music.