GUSANO MECANICO

A band so obscure and album so painfully rare it makes those underground acetate reissues look like garden variety pop and the only Bolivian group listed in these archives, Climax is a rough and scratchy sheep in wolf's clothing, a progressive power trio in the finest tradition that bloozes its way through this only release from 1974. They'd been together since around '69 and it shows, with plenty of post-Cream atmosphere, the bass-heavy swing of Zep, Hendrix's acid funk, and the not-quite-right jazz of Tempest.

But there is definitely something else going on here. You can let the fumbling grandeur of 'Pachacuttec' roll over you but you'd miss the subtle Latin hints, continual variance, and Alavaro Cordova's not so subtle Keith Moon drums. You may dismiss 'Tranfusioin de Luz' as mere Page-baiting with its near-distaterous tempo and awful guitar solos, and you'd be right. And 'Cuerpo Electrico' sounds like all the B-list heavy psych you ever heard rolled into one unsure cement block of love, face-blushing mistakes and all. But then there's the 3 part title cut and suddenly guitarist/singer Jose Eugenio's keyboard breaks out the Keith Emerson and we have a whole new ball game, a heavy prog opus in miniature that belies this band's shameless lack of polish. It makes us realize there was mediocre Prog that still cooked and had hidden away in it something for those wishing to dig a little deeper, made by unassuming musicians who wanted to be part of what was happening. The piece is an epic in a toilet and Cordova, Eugenio and 12-string bass player Javier Soldias were ambitious if woefully inadequate. The result is rather fascinating, a brief meeting of the salty dog bluesmen of the 1960s and art rock sophistry that was to follow.

Only recommended to those willing to jump into this ice-cold water but if your taste for raucous and leathery heavy prog of the vintage variety needs saitiating, check em out one Sunday afternoon.

About a week ago, while searching my LP's collection I found a rarity called "Gusano Eléctrico" (Electric Worm) by the Bolivian band CLIMAX, I remember buying it in the mid 70's just because the store dealer told me it was good Rock from Bolivia, and had forgotten why haven't listened it for almost 35 years.

So placed it on my old turntable expecting some Andean Rock with the class of Los Kjarkas, but the explanation of why it was gathering moth in a box fell by it's own weight, the album is absolutely amateur to say the best, I honestly don't know why it was added, because it's some sort of very late Psyche, with some leanings towards folk, but with an incredible lack of imagination and no Prog connection or originality.

"Pachacutec (Rey de Oro)" (Pachacutec King of Gold) opens the album and the first question comes to my mind...What are this guys doing?

It's obvious that they are trying to play of Andean Hard Rock, but the folk component is so poor that gets lost inside the horrendous distorted guitars, there's absolutely no coherence or structure, they seem to jam without any purpose or idea, it's clear that the guitarist is a Jimmy Hendrix wannabe, but of course very far from the original.

When I listen "Transfusión de Luz" (Light Transfusion), I wonder why they took the time to write it as a separate song from "Pachacutec ...", they could just had made the first track longer and add some vocals, it's exactly the same chaos, but even worst because the vocals.

By this point a second question arises...Why did they credit keyboards if I can hear none? It's just a noisy guitar shredding and a fast drummer who abuses of the cymbals.

"Cuerpo Eléctrico - Embrión de Reencarnación" (Electric Body - Reincarnation Embryo) is as lack of sense as the name of the track, the song is more calmed but the drummer continues playing as in the same tempo as in the first two tracks, at last I can listen a bit of keyboards lost behind the loud guitar but nothing special.

Close to the end there's a break that seems to announce a radical change, but it's just a loud Blues that you can listen in any pub...Where is the Prog?

"Gusano Mecánico" (Mechanic Worm) seems to be a multi part 10 minutes epic (well at least in the credits), but still I don't know what this guys are trying to do, an Emerson inspired keyboard gives some hopes, but the drummer continues playing the first track (as he has done up to this point), and ruins the effort of the band do something different......It's evident that trying is not a synonymous of achieving, because the multi parts can't be noticed and the sound is as basic and loud as in the rest of the album.

"Prana - Energía Vital" (Prana - Vital Energy) is a pleonasm, because Prana means Vital Energy in Sanskrit, but it's a pompous name for a drum solo of 3 minutes.

The album ends with "Cristales Soñadores" (Dreamy Crystals), a jazzy but repetitive track with nothing special or worth to be mentioned, they base their sound in a couple of chords repeated ad nauseam while the guitar keeps jamming without any idea of what they are trying.

I won't insist in my question about the Prog connection of this band, because everybody in the mid 70's had some relation with our beloved genre, and I respect the teams opinion, but I have to say that hardly heard an album with less imagination than this one, loud, chaotic and lack of originality, will go with 2 stars, even when 1.5 would be the correct rating.