HUMUS

Having started as a solo project delivered by Mexican guitarist Jorge Beltrán in the late 80s whose first inputs in the music business were D.I.Y. cassette recordings, Humus eventually became a full band that included lifelong friend Víctor Basurto on bass. In this way, the band was equipped with enough resources as to increasingly reinforce its sonic structure in its first CD releases, "Tus Oídos Mienten" and the sophomore namesake album that is being reviewed right now. Humus' progressive offering is based on a robust dynamics that simultaneously inherits the neurotic force of Wetton-era King Crimson, the heavy ambiences of old school psychedelic rock and the vibrating energy of Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin. That is mostly it, although it would also be fair to mention the presence of some guitar-oriented Kraut (Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel) elements creeping in for good effect. This album kicks off with the very 'Ultrarápido (Súper Humus)', whose raging riffs and powerful rhythmic developments comprised in the extended main body make it a direct manifesto of what Humus is all about. This is a hybrid of Gothic LZ and "Hendrixed" KC. The calmer interlude and the pastoral acoustic guitar-based coda generate an interesting source of variation. What a great beggining! 'Zelvalareina' bears an electrifying vigor much akin to the opener's main focus, and the same description can be applied to 'L'ente Trioculaire', although the latter comprises a wider arrangement of contrasting passages. 'Solar Abuse (In Memoriam F.Z.)' states a space-rock approach to the Crimsonian framework that the band handles so freely through jazzy undertones, in this way closing the album's first half ? oh!, and despite the kind tribute in the subtitle, it doesn't sound like Zappa at all. 'Gloomy Broom' has lots of power in its opening theme and the subsequent reprise for the coda; in the middle, the trio indulges in slow, spacey explorations in which the band exercises subtlety and constraint without letting go of its recurrent stamina. With less than a 1 ½ minute span, 'Cong' encapsulates a delicate motif with deep jazzy colors: such a pity that it should be so short! But before we shed a tear for this track's ephemeral duration, 'Nederweit' fills our ears and mind with agile moods (again, very Crimsonian and very Hendrixian) that somewhere in the middle get augmented with playful cosmic cadences a-la Gong (pre-Hillage era). Finally, 'Trastornorgonal' states a solid recapitulation of the most extroverted sonorities that have abounded in the preceding repertoire, which helps the album as a whole to portray the nature of Humus' musical vision. This band was an excellent find for me, and so I regard this album as an excellent item in any good progressive rock collection.