FROM BONE TO SATELLITE

Generally seen as their more accessible album, From Bone To Satellite is the album that introduced me to Tarentel and while discovering GYBE!'s first two releases, they were my first introduction to Post rock, a term (and style) that was only beginning to stem bnack in those years. I remember thinking of Tortoise's debut album as their closest cousin or influence. Also remember being somewhat fascinated with the beautiful inside artwork (the outside artwork is not bad either, but must be seen in real size) and how it meshed so well with the ambiance of the music. Of course now some 8 years later, this kind of album has been many times duplicated, copied, plagiarized and devalued the music present on here.

Out of all of Tarentel's records (the ones I heard anyway), this one might just be the only one that justifies their reputation of being influenced by Floyd, and much of it has to do with the grandiose leadoff track Steede Bonnet. With the almost violent We Almost Killed Ourselves, the album soon plunges in a more traditional post rock, but one that was definitely still groundbreaking back then. Ursa Major is the perfect follow-up but would've gained from being more concise. For Carl Sagan is a more reflective and repetitive number, which might have been a few minutes shorter for its own good. Strange Attractors is the great closer starting out on a slow crescendo, but suddenly dropping to an intimate climate then almost a full stop, lovingly staying alive through weak percussions than all a sudden exploding with an unsuspected violence, narrowingly escaping auto-implosion on a couple occasion before finding itself drifting/space-trucking outside of the Milky Way until its slow death.

Retrospectively, this is probably not the most inventive album of Tarentel, but certainly the one that gave them enough confidence to soldier on to make other beauties such as We Move Through Weather. A fitting intro to Tarentel, this might be more accessible than their newer albums, but it is quite less obtuse as well, even ifs extreme length (a whopping 74 minutes) is not its best asset.

It was 1999 and the genre called post rock was not very known those days. In 1997 Godspeed made F#A#oo INFINITY and was a hell of an album. In response, two years later Tarentel came out with the famous "From bone to Satellite". Regarded as their most post-rockish album and also accessible to digest; (well its not that easy to digest, but after a couple or more listens it starts to grasp.)

The album starts with "Steede Bonnet" a piece that reminds me the first track in the great "Mi media Naranja" of Labraford. With a rare old west sound, like music for a Sergios Leone movie or something. This track starts slowly, building a melody until the 9 min mark aprox. ( The typical Crescendo in post rock, but very well done).

Then we have "When We Almost Killed Ourselves", That is more aggressive and the crescendos are more intense. It starts very ethereal and suddenly explodes in a very intense progression that leads again in to another soundscape build up, with clean guitars, calm percussions and some keyboards in the background; very beautiful crescendo.

Next comes "Ursa Minor, Ursa Major", and excellent piece. The crescendo its magnificent. It builds up till the 7 min mark. And then the Euphoria starts, its really a very powerful piece (but not heavy at all); then it gets quiet with more clean guitars and great drumming. This track worth the whole album. But there's more.

Next "For Carl Sagan", That speaks for itself. A tribute for the famous astronomer. The piece its very ethereal and spacey, obvious. And it get very dense, could've been shorter , but its 20 min long and you have to be very alert for the changes and little crescendos to get the whole idea behind this giant epic. (Overall good). And Finally "Strange Attractors". In the same line it begins with a repetitive melody that grows until it starts again with a little variation, then a little experimentation and suddenly explodes with great drumming and some distorted guitar but very good Implemented. The track slow down with some spacey keyboards and finally finish almost in silent.

The experience with This album its quite exciting, it will please all the post rock fans and also every proghead will find some very interesting stuff here, so give it a try. Overall 4 stars. Excellent addition to any post rock/ experimental/Krautrock/space prog Collection.

Bamba, Celaya, Gto. México.