Polifemo (Argentina)

 

This band was like a who's who of Argentinian rock/prog.Basically they were an off shoot of the great Sui Generis.Legendary guitarist David Lebon(Color Humano,Pescado Rabioso,guest with Sui Generis),bassist Rinaldo Rafanelli(Sui Generis,Color Humano) and drummer Juan Rodrigez(Los Mentales,Sui Generis) came toghether in 1975 and recorded a couple of basic hard/blues rock singles that got them instant recognition.The following year they enlisted yet another important figure of the fertile Argentinian scene, keyboardist Ciro Fogliatta(Los Gatos,Sacramento,Espiritu) and started working on their first eponymus album.

The result was quite a departure from those two early singles,beign a blend of hard rock with the bombast and symphonism of prog.Most of the tracks are heavy and song based,yet the elaborated arrangements,instrumental sections and lush keyboards makes them more than your average run- of- the- mill hard rock band,although there are a few dud tracks(similar to their early singles) that seemed out of place on the album.Side two of the original vinyl was spectacular to say the least,with all three mid-lenght tracks spliced together in suite-like fashion.

The second album,released in 1977, was more of the same,yet this time the instrumental sections were longer,more elaborate and Fogliatta seemed to have more freedom and was let loose, along with Lebon,to produce some mind bogling solos of pyrotechnical proportions.There seemed to be more of a latin flair than on the first release too.

Unfortunately,before the album came out,the band broke out and Fogliatta was left ''holding the baby''.He apperantly finished producing the album by himself.

Both albums are recommended to those into the heavier side of 70's elaborated/prog rock such as Queen,Uriah Heep,Argent,mid-period Styx and maybe Santana.Both albums have been re-released on CD with the singles as bonus.

I suppose the heavy prog category would be apropriate,if not, at least crossover or at the very least prog-related.

 

Unfortunately there isn't much about them out there,except maybe this link;(It is obvious that the one who wrote the band's bio isn't a fan of prog as he critisize them for turning their back on their simple rock origins to the detriment of symphonic rock!)

 

 

 

Alain

 

They started as a blues-rock band with moderate artsy pretensions. When they recorded their second album, Lebon-penned ballads became longer, more eerie and more melodically elaborated, while Rinaldo-penned tracks (espacially the two instrumentals) tended to be more complex. Rinaldo had become momentarily obsessed with Mahavishnu and Crimson, but it only lasted one year, and anyway, he and the rest of the band became a bit scared of their own acquired complexity, so the band was finally terminated due to musical differences, as usual. Despite themselves, Polifemo seems in tune with the Crossover label, only for their second album.

 

This case is a bit similar to Ave Rock although it's nos the same, really. Ave Rock started as a hard rock band wwith obvious artsy pretensions and they really wanted to become progressive, and so they did for their second album.

 

   Kind regards.

 

 

Alain and Assaf also have an opnion....