LEI SECA

The band chose to cover many styles related to prog music in this first album,yet ''Rottenness way'' keeps a good balance throughout,except maybe a couple of tracks.The first couple of tracks ''Keep The Koram'' and ''Asia minor'' are great Symphonic Rock gems with lush organ sounds,expressive vocals and melodic guitars, sending strong CAMEL and PAR LINDH PROJECT vibes.''Misgiven'' is actually a decent rock ballad,but the following ''Let it roll'' is absolutely cheesy,groovy guitar rock with DIRE STRAITS influences.Fortunately ''Lei Seca'' is a fantastic Space Rock instrumental with nice organ and PINK FLOYD hints everywhere,but with ''Cyberporn'' the band will fall into a commercial trap again,an awful humurous-wannabee track with a heavy THE ROLLING STONES influence.The self-titled track is a fine Heavy/Psychedelic/Prog anthem reminiscent of SOCRATES with superb guitar work,background keys and intense vocal lines.On ''Nothing to Say'' the band will show again a strong PINK FLOYD influence,good Psychedelic/Space Rock with atmospheric synths,lyrical content and efficient guitar parts.The album will close with Lei Seca showing off their folk side with the short instrumental ''From Music Box to Revelation'',based on acoustic guitars and synths.

Apart from the two aforementioned dull songs,Lei Seca proove to be a nice and talented act with a variety of styles played by the band with consistency and inspiration.The mediocre production does not help,yet the album ends up to be a pleasant listening for the majority of progressive rock followers.Recommended.

Inbetween all the oddities on this album, you mostly get a mix of Pink Floyd, Eloy and Camel on this album. A nice mix if it is combined with strong melodies. But in this respect, Lei Seca fails. Krakatao is a drawn out epic and has no real good themes. I lost interest half way through it. It is a good epic, but nothing more. The same goes for the rest of the songs here. Good, but not great. The most baffling about this album is the album title. Art Rock ? Gimme a break ! They should had named it Krakatao or something else.

3 stars

Lei Seca is a pretty interesting band from Brazil. Their second album Art Rock is pretty popular here on PA. Nobody, besides of myself, was able to find Rottenness Way, their debut album. This is therefore the first review in PA of this album.

Some of the tracks are very much down the Roger Waters avenue. Other parts of this album is much more pastorial and lyrical than Pink Floyd. Harmonium springs to mind. There is also elements of Neo Prog here. Riverside springs to mind. The rock elements is also pretty strong. Dire Straits springs to mind and that is not a good sign. But ELP has also got their brief moment on this album. Kansas also comes on a visit on the first track.

What we end up with is a very contemporary album which is inspired by some great bands (Dire Straits exluded, it can be argued). The problem is the lack of any superb songs and the lack of identity. Both of the band and the material. Their second album was called Art Rock and that label is the right one for this album too. Both the band and this album is good. But neither is superb. This is a good effort but nothing more. But please give this band a chance.

3 stars

The band plays mostly instrumental pieces and this is clearly their forte: I liked very much their variety of sound landscapes and mix of styles. The CD never gets boring. Zamboni even includes some mandolin bits that are really nice. The other band members are as able as him.The vocal parts on the other side suffers from the same plague of so many prog bands through the style´s entire history: they are weak and uninteresting, more a hindrance than a good add on to the overall work. Not that bassist Valdir Guimarães is bad vocalist. But with a real, trained singer with a better voice it would have made all the difference. Fortunatly vocal parts are few and far between. The best track in my opinion is the first, the 16 minute epic Krakatoa (great keys and shifting moods all over it)

With a good production, good ideas, tasteful arrangements and excellent playing the band succeeds to deliver a fine CD that promises better things in the future. Unfortunatly it seems that those guys didn´t release anything since this album was out. I hope they will come back soon with something like this one. My rating: 3,5 stars.

'Krakatoa' is a 16'17 minutes suite divided into eleven different parts that pretty much shows the love of Valdir Zamboni (guitars and vocals) by Devil Doll (later even more explicit in Tarkus and Family Free Rock albums). Lei Seca used to interpret their own music as Art Rock (just as the name of the album states), but in fact they fall pretty much in the Symphonic umbrella.

'Amadeus I' is a folk-driven song with acoustic guitars and mandolin. A very good track. 'Lei Seca II' is yeat another suite, this time divided into six parts in its 10'12 minutes. Cesar Frezzato's drums has a very weak sound throughout the album and end up compromising his performance. Not just that, Valdir Guimarães bass playing isn't good too, sometimes even out of tune in his solo tries. Much of their music is based in Mickey Nicolas' keyboards and in the excellent Valdir Zamboni guitars.

Then we have another three tracks in Art Rock (1999): 'Amadeus II' that follows the same steps as the first part, even in the melody. Although it changes the pace towards the middle including a very weak bass solo, amateur style. Then 'Sr. Walker', another good folk moment with nice synths that reminded me some ELP moments. 'Keep The Koram II' closes the album somewhat like 'Abaddon's Bolero from ELP's Trilogy (1972) album, but with guitars.

Art Rock (1999) is a good album that was released by Medusa Records almost 15 years ago. But don't expect any classic.

Key tracks: Krakatoa, Amadeus I & Lei Seca II

Influences could be PINK FLOYD (some atmospherical moments), CAMEL (the melodic line) and ELOY (symphonic and pompous soundscapes). Nevertheless, music sounds fresh and always interesting due constant changes and surprises. "Art Rock" is basically instrumental (fortunately, because the vocalist -singing in English- is the band's lowest point).

"Krakatoa" is the highlight: a long epic piece conformed by many short, beautiful and very symphonic compositions, cohesively joined. A majestic track. "Amadeus I" is a sort of vals played in samba rythm (the Brazilian national music), very nice. "Lei Seca II" is melodic and plenty of rythmical changes, great piece. In the same vein is "Amadeus II": along seven minutes, music flows from atmospheric to energetic moments, including a short homage to Mozart through a classical melody composed by the fantastic Austrian musician. "Sr. Walker" is a very nice instrumental track with lots of percussion. Finally, "Keep the Koram II" is another epic song plenty of changes with some Eastern and folky hints (accordion is used here).

One of prog rock characteristic is the frequent rythmical variation inside the same composition. Many bands do it, but just a few are able to be so cohesive as LEI SECA in "Art Rock", keeping -at the same time- the melodic beauty along the whole stuff. An excellent album.