ASFALTO

This is the first "real" album from Asfalto, since Homenaje a The Beatles was a thing they got paid for and that wasn't credited to them in the first edition (those were carbon copies of Beatles hits, they got paid to do that).

The band had been rejected by labels for two years. They were working in a opera/concept album when they finally got signed by the new label Chapa (a sub labed by Zafiro). They were the first ever band to have a release for that label that got to sign a lot of Spanish bands over the years. They had some pressure from the label to get a certain grade of success - after all they were the first from that new label - and they gave up the opera/concept project, using only some of those songs for the B side of the album (Quiere Irme: La Huida/Rocinante/La Isla del Amor). The rest was a mix of new written songs and some old songs that they hadn't thought of recording them.

The album was recorded over a few days in November 1977. The guys were very upset by the final results of the sessions. In fact, when they got called for a listening, they thought that was a rough mix, not the mastered album. This got released in March '78 but the disatisfaction was so big that the band broke up because of it, with Jiménez and Laina forming Topo, while Castejón and Cajide recluiting new members to go on with a new name ... until they got convinced by their own crew (that had stayed with them) to go on as Asfalto ... but that's another story.

So the band didn't think at the time that this album was representing them. The new Aslfalto nor Topo weren't playing these songs live ... until a few months later the album started to get really popular, and Asfalto HAD to include songs from it in their live sets. With the years four songs from it (Capitán Trueno, Ser Urbano, Rocinante and Días de Escuela) got to reach a classic status in Spanish rock. And well, the sound is not that good BUT it's NOT bad, the engineer took the "bite" out of their guitars. The band at the time were closer to Man in sound - maybe a bit of Wishbone Ash too - though the big thing about them was having three strong singers, that worked beautiful armonies and did co-leads in some songs - a thing that always goes with me.

These songs mostly don't have prog elements, except Quiero Irme: La Huída and a few touches here and there. The next album would be mostly prog. But that's another story.

Two things: Julio Castejón also handled the keyboards in the recording (he doubled in guitar/keys live then). And the flute that you can hear in Capitán Trueno is from an outsider-non-credited-player (a friend of Jiménez).

A must if you want to know about Spanish rock, but not a prog jewel to be honest.