PANDELIRIUM

Brazilian proggers DIALETO began life all the way back in 1987 under the moniker Dialect. Formed by the only member to span all incarnations of the band, Nelson Coelho (guitar, vocals) found the right buddies interested in the world of progressive rock which hadn't quite made its revival comeback quite yet. As Dialect the band released one self-titled album in 1991 and then called it quits in 1994. After several years of inaction, Coelho revived the project only under the Portuguese word for Dialect which is DIALETO. Reformed in 2006, the newly established São Paulo proggers released "Will Exist Forever" in 2008 and have been cranking out albums every few years ever since.

PANDELIRIUM is the latest release which comes out a whopping seven years after "Bartók in Rock" emerged in 2017. Why the long delay? Well the pandemic of 2020 of course. And Coehlo did something that i have never heard anyone else doing and that is documenting his entire bout with covid-19 and all the horrors of experiencing it full on and the recovery process. Yeah, many may have narrated the state of the world during those unfortunate days but as far as i've experienced, no one has put their personal experiences of actually suffering the condition and putting the whole process to music. That is not only a novel idea but fairly unique. Does it make a compelling topic for a musical experience though? Well, why not?!! So many other lesser topics have been covered and after all, the entire event affected the entire world.

The new DIALETO features same lineup as the last album which includes Coelho (guitars, digital instruments), Garbriel Costa (bass) and Fred Barley (drums). PANDELIRIUM is basically a musical medical report about covid-19 and Coelho's experience of contracting the disease, the hospitalization process and the very long recovery process. Apparently there is an accompanying book with written and illustrations that was created by Nelson Coelho with the music soundtrack covered by DIALETO. Now that's original! While the album is in the English language being from Brazil there will be an ebook in the Portuguese language as well. However don't worry about the depressing theme. The lyrics aren't very prevalent. This is mostly an instrumental progressive rock with spoken lyrics that are sort of whispered and not very comprehensible at that.

In the past DIALETO has tackled everything from avant-prog and jazz fusion to heavier prog styles. ON PANDELIRIUM the opening track "The Long Way" starts out as space rock but then towards the end of the nearly 9-minute track becomes a heavier rocker with strong contrapuntal keyboard stabs syncopated with a feisty guitar soloing process. "The Great Geodesic Hall" on the other hand starts with a groovy bass line on slo-mo with a strange slightly off-kilter piano roll accompanying. Then some sort of digitalized sound that joins in. More whispered vocals. Strange chromatic scales. This is wild! The band has a unique way of mixing the avant-prog angularity with outbursts of heavy prog and jazz fusion. They sort of alternate but sort of also connect very logically. Gotta love the cool bass playing. It sounds either fretless or the strings are bent in strange ways. Either way, love it!

"The Long Way Back" is a very relaxed track and perfectly symbolized the painfully slow nature of recovering from anything of major discomfort. It offers something of a lazy atmosphere and a very relaxed bass groove with sensual guitar notes slowly crafting a depressive counterpoint. The feel of anguish, despair and complete exhaustion is conveyed very effectively. But then it explodes into a heavy rock frenzy! Well at least for a few seconds. That was basically the cue to slow down again and let the drums join in. Pretty clever track. "Waiting For Numbers" is more upbeat but offers some starting guitar moves and sort of a dissonant boogie of sort. The bass groove and the guitars are out of sync melodically but rhythmically together. Sort of a no wave move? Then it becomes totally mellow thus the art of DIALETO's unique approach of crafting startling contrasts that connect logically but offer thrilling excursions from the norm.

And thankfully the closing "Back Home" is a cheerful uplifting mix of jazz rock that starts off slow and incrementally gains its strength until the track is a feisty totally recovered entity! Overall this is a cool album that through music narrates the whole covid patient scenario from beginning to end. This concept album works quite well and the music really does indicate the emotions of each stage of the process. DIALETO has always had its own very unique sound and on PANDELIRIUM seems to take it to another level by unifying its signature idiosyncrasies with a concept that is usually not too cheery. It's a topic everyone can relate to but i can't think of another artist who has put it to music! Very original, very creative and a big kudos for all the excellent musicianship of this power trio that displays an excellent sense of interplay as each musician takes his retrospective instrumentation into its own world which results in a very bizarre but satisfying sum of the parts.