14 DE ABRIL

One of the better example of Spanish prog, the debut of this Sevillian group has become one of the most sought after vinyl in their home country. This quintet - your standard prog quartet plus sax man Pepe Sanchez - develops a rather punchy and relatively personal prog but mainly inspired of the British scene while maintaining a Spanish touch through the acoustic guitar. Four long tracks of which the shortest (still above the 8 min-mark) is divided into two sections make the backbone of this symphonic album.

The opening track is sometimes annoying with its approximate recording of a VDGG- like sax and vocals (too loud in the mix), but there are some beautiful moments. From the first guitar arpeggios of the 2-part Mother Earth track, this is all forgotten and all you have to do is let yourself be transported by the calm and wild ambiances - how these guys come from total chaos into superb arpeggios in twenty seconds without being abrupt is amazing. The third track is much harder rocking with its crunchy guitar power chords, but remains very charming. Unfortunately for the continuity of the album, the last track is sung in English (all the rest were in Spanish), but there are some evidences of very early Crimson in its slow start. The track is rather odd with its fade-ins and outs, but shows Goma at their most adventurous.

With their first album, Goma strike a minor masterpiece, but for some reason, will not be able to capitalize on this album, and by the time that came out the second album four years after, the feeling was quite different and the momentum lost. However, this album is really recommended for all progheads, maybe one of the top 10 from Spain.

Not as good as I believed they were

During the last 10 years I heard like 1,000 times that GOMA was better than cold beer in the desert, but because "14 de Abril" is so hard to get in Perú, never had the chance to listen them, so last week when I saw an almost brand new LP in the store I visit always, so bought it blindly. Can't say I regret my impulsive act, but I believe they are far from being the outstanding band so many people talk about.

Yes, they are food musicians, the Flamenco guitar moments are breathtaking and the keyboards are very good, but their problem is that they blend so many genres, sounds, styles and moods, that seems the guys could never find their path, and I believe that's the reason why they never released a second album.

The album is opened by "Aquí y Ahora" (Here and Now), and from the start they lost me, the Jazzy sax that leads to some sort of hard Psychedelia is the last thing I expected to listen from a Sevillan band, and the vocals only contributed to my absolute confusion, like some sort of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR wannabe band singing in Spanish, and the shredding simply destroys any coherence or logic. Thanks God that around the seventh minute the annoying sax is silenced and the beautiful piano by Alberto Toribio appears and changes the atmosphere of the track to a beautiful and melodic Moorish oriented track, and the vocals are so good that I can' understand how they could perpetrate the aberration the committed at the beginning of the song. Even though the song ends with a Sax section, now is much better than before. Seems like two successive tracks, one annoying the other extremely good.

"Madre Tierra" (Mother Earth) guitar intro makes me shiver, simply delightful and they manage to keep this Spanish atmosphere almost until the 4:30 minutes mark, when that irritating sax (Whoever hired Pepe Sánchez should be shot for ruining a band), and from there, just senseless cacophony, like a nightmare after a wonderful dream. Not even the Flamenco guitar coda can clean the mess this guys did after the fourth minute.

"Un Nuevo Abril sin Sal" (A New April Without Salt) doesn't have the level of the best moments of the previous songs (neither the low level of the worst moments), but at least it's coherent, from the start is heavy and jazzy, so even the distorted guitar sounds, not my cup of tea, but well performed.

The album is closed by the 11:37 minutes long song (I believe epic is more than just a track that lasts more than 10 or 15 minutes) that starts boring and ends so confusing that probably a free jazz fan would be lost(despite the good bass performance), and to make it worst, it's sung in a terrible English, terrible closer for an uneven album. Not even the melodic moments clearly influenced by YES can save this disaster.

To summarize, I like Eclectic music (if this wasn't the case, I wouldn't be listening Prog), but this guys mix so many styles that seems as if they were never able to find their own sound. Will rate it with 3 stars because of the outstanding passages that the first three tracks have before or after ruining what otherwise could be an amazing album.

GOMA were a five piece band from Spain who managed to release just this one album in 1975. The title is the date the band was formed, and also the date the album was released, exactly one year later. This is an album with some different styles which is fine, but the production is not. The sound quality is lacking at times affecting my enjoyment. We get four of the guys singing lead or harmonies. And besides the usual instruments we get sax.

And that sax sounds like it was influenced by GONG around 1 1/2 minutes in on the opener, sounding quite silly. This after a guitar led start. After the sax steps aside we get another complete change as the organ leads the way. High pitched multi- vocals join in as well. More silly sax then it gets dissonant. The guitar lights it up before 6 minutes then a calm. It never does kick back in after this.

While the opener was a good track marred by some bad production, the closer which is almost the same length at over 11 1/2 minutes is just simply disappointing. Just not a lot going on for extended periods here.The opening reserved vocals and sound are boring to say the least. Going on far too long. A tough listen overall. Probably my favourite track is "Madre Tierra" and especially later when it turns heavy and the sax gets dissonant. Even the bass is on fire here. Lots of acoustic guitar on this track as well. The other middle track, also about the same length at over 8 minutes impresses more then those long opening and closing tracks.

A good album but that closer drags this down. Even if it was better this would be 3.5 stars at most. The production doesn't help in all of this. Not quite the lost classic I was hoping for.