SOBRE LA CRESTA DE LA OLA

After Tempano and Parthenon, here's another band from Venezuela : Ficcion. Their roots are from 1976, it lasted until 2002 before material was released, a compilation CD entitled Sobre El Abismo. It contains 7 tracks recorded between 1979 and 1986 and 3 new compositions from 2002. This new CD entitled Sobre La Cresta De La Ola by Ficcion delivers 8 new songs, 5 are instrumental.

I am a bit disappointed about the songs with vocals parts, I had expected more emotion, it all sounds not really moving like the vocals from other Latin-American progrock bands like Los Jaivas, Crusis, Angulart and Nexus. But the 5 instrumental tracks sound good, you can hear that the musicians know each other very well because there is chemistry with great interplay, power and dynamics. The focus is on the outstanding keyboard work by Jose Ignacio Lares. After listening to this CD I have e- mailed him because, as a 'vintage freak', I was curious about his array of vintage keyboards. Well, Jose his wide range of keyboards contains great keyboards like a Hammond C-3 (so no Farfisa organ as a reviewer mentioned), plenty of original Moogs like the Minimoog, the Memorymoog and the Liberation Moog and a Fender Rhodes 88 piano. That mighty Moog sound (Jose stated that "Robert Moog was the Albert Einstein of the synthesizers!") is omnipresent on this CD: sensational Moog flights, often very fat and bombastic, no surprise that Jose told that his hero is Keith Emerson! The 5 instrumental compositions sound fluent and swinging featuring lots of great soli on keyboards (not only vintage but also modern sounding): flashy synthesizer soli in Peces, Regreso, Solo Y Acompanado, Un Nuevo Amanecer (evoking Don Airey his sensational Minimoog sound) and Suite De Las Siete Virgenes (with strong hints from Keith Emerson). In Planeta Porno we hear a long and varied piano solo (that alternates between classical, jazzy and even a bit avant-garde), the songs Peces and Suite De Las Siete Virgenes delivers powerful organ soli. Ficcion also surprises us with some fine musical ideas like the Brasilian carnival interlude in Solo Y Acompanado (whistles, percussion) and wonderful, classical inspired violin work in Danza Boreal. To me Ficcion sounds like 'symphonic jazzrock' in the vein of Colosseum II and Jeff Beck (Wired-era) but without being a derivative. If they work on the vocals, this band surely will earn 4 stars, now I rate Ficcion with 3 stars, I am very delighted about the strong interplay and great keyboard work!

This album disapointed me. There two main points about it. At first the technical skills of the musicians is not well exploited. There is a total lack of groove in the bass-drum section (sometimes it sounds like a teenage band at the beginning). The harmony is poor. The keyboard player makes poor solos and should remind tony banks stuff in genesis or other great keyboard player (ian hammer, corea...). But all this points could be neglected if the compostions were good. And it's obviously not the case. Too many prog composers are making the same things actually! In the 70's, the biggest bands were classical, jazz, medieval or contemporary music players. If you like the classics, be carefull with this (axe eugene) album which is symptomatic of an uninspired and weakly played kind of Prog rock that copies the 70's and put science fiction pictures on cd's in order to developp a revival! I'm sure the musicians can make an original better stuff! In the term progressive rock, there is PROGRESS!