ARCO IRIS

This self title album represents the most spiritual, "pop" folk side of the band and the less jazzy one. This first effort is characterised by the typical "beat" sound of the 60's. Consequently it's more in the vein of proto-prog bands as Vanilla Fudge and others but with a nice emphasis on acoustic parts. "Quiero Llegar" starts as a calm, "enchanting" song then goes into a rock 'n roll "trip", featuring some beautiful electric guitar solos. "Hoy Te Mire" is one of these mellow, mainstream acoustic ballads, including Spanish lyrics about love and desire. "Camino" is a "sunny", pastoral, romantic ballad with some "naive" pop accents. "Coral" is an emotional and "nostalgic" polyphonic chant with nice dialogues between the voices. "Te Quiero, Te Espero" is an other love ballad, probably the most achieved on this album, very "sensitive" with a memorable, "dreamy" acoustic instrumentation. "Luli" is an acoustic interlude including a "fragile" woman voice. "Cancion de Cuna..." begins as a mysterious, strange folk ballad. The break features some really "weird", "acid" accentuations. "Y Una Flor" is a little poetic folk ballad for flute, guitars and voices. "Tiempo" is maybe the only rock tune on this album. It features captivating jazzy rock sequences dominated by the sax. "Y Ahora Soy" which closes the album starts with a dark musical sentence played by the sax and then goes into a mainstream jazz. A very convincing debut. The band rapidly demonstrated their capacity to impose their own style.

3,5 stars

Released in 1969, the first album from this Argentinean band is very fresh and cheerful. A mellow folk with traditional south american influence, nice voices and an early psychedelic side. On an instrumental level, the guitar is clearly the most impressive instrument with excellent fuzz and wha wha parts. The flute is gentle and contributes to this warm, sunny and soft mood. The band successfully combines gentle pastoral folk and genuine psychedelic inspiration. A promising debut album from an original band.

I've been enjoying this cd this past week and decided to listen to it on my way into work today on this beautiful sunny Saturday. And it was a pleasure listening to this romantic, innocent and almost naive recording from 1969.This band is from Argentina and this is their debut which is very much a Pyche / Folk flavoured album that reminded me constantly of the RPI genre. It's not all laid back but that is the predominant feature of this album. Some nice flute, guitar and sax excursions as well, and I like the Spanish vocals.

"Quiero Llegar" has a relaxing mood to it with reserved vocals.The flute replaces the vocals briefly and I really like the instrumental section that starts before 2 minutes. Lots of bass, percussion and drums.The guitar comes in a minute later sounding quite raw. How cool is this ! "Hoy Te Mire" features fragile vocals in a pastoral setting. It does pick up some before a minute but not for long. "Camino" is a top four track for me. It opens with guitar, flute, vocals and a light beat. Beautiful stuff. It kicks in briefly and the contrasts will continue. I love both the mellow and more aggressive sections.

"Coral" is a short piece with vocal harmonies. "Te Quiero,Te Espero" is mellow with tender vocals.Gorgeous. Piano after 1 1/2 minutes to the end. "Luli" is a short (thankfully) male and female vocal piece totalling 39 seconds. "Cancion De Cuna Para El Nino Astronauta" is another top four track.This is laid back and melancholic with vocals and strummed guitar. Flute joins in too and i'm reminded of LANDBERK especially the acid guitar. Check it out 2 1/2 minutes in. A definite psychedelic flavour to this one. "Y Una Flor (El Pastito)" is mellow with vocals and flute. A strong Folk flavour here.

"Tiempo" opens with sax and drums. I like the beat here with guitar.The vocals here are the most aggressive on the album. It settles back as the sax leads and we get some nice bass too before 3 minutes. Now it's the guitar's turn as they jam. This is great ! A calm with piano and flute ends it. A top four. "Y Ahora Soy" is my final top four and the longest track at almost 12 minutes.This is surprisingly dark with sax to start.That changes when the tempo picks up. It settles back again with sax but it's brighter than the intro. Flute and acoustic guitar come in before vocals and a fuller sound takes over. A change before 7 1/2 minutes then we get this cool sounding beat with sax and guitar before 10 minutes.

A special album that hits that emotional cord.

Usually, late 60's/early 70's albums are not my favorites. It's just not my favorite kind of sound, simple as that. In addition, Psychedelic Rock in general is not my favorite genre as well. However, every now and then we find pearls. And this is one of them! Arco Iris (Rainbow) is a band from Argentina that recorded many records throughout the 70's. Their self-titled debut album is a great album that I can barely say it's Psychedelic. Sure, there are many elements of Psychedelic music here, but I would say that they play a strong Proto- Prog kind of sound. The Prog elements are all here but not quite matured yet.

In addition, the Pop flavor is all around, you can sing along with half of tunes and the other half are more experimental in a way.

I would expect this kind of album from any English band from late 60's, that's where the sound came from anyway. But as I mentioned, every now and then we have some bands like Arco Iris or Os Mutantes (from Brazil) that defies all the major league countries and record true great albums.

Arco Iris (1970) was re-released a couple of times in Argentina, including a 2004 version (with Bonus tracks) and a recent re-edition in Cardboard Sleeve. If you find it? buy it. It'll be worthy!