POLIFEMO

Short-lived Argentinian supergroup, that came to life in 1975 after the demise of Sui Generis.Initially Polifemo started as a Blues Rock trio with Sui Generis's Rinaldo Rafanelli on bass and Juan Rodriguez on bass along with guitarist David Lebón (ex-Pappo's Blues and a bandmate of Rinaldo Rafanelli in Color Humano).After a first single in 1975 the trio was joined by Espíritu's keyboardist Ciro Fogliatta and Polifemo, who had already singed with EMI, debuted in May 1976 with a self-titled debut.

While the basis of Polifemo's music was still a standard well-played Blues Rock, the presence of Fogliatta and the anxious spirits of the rest of the band make ''Polifemo'' much more than a rock release full of bluesy solos and grooves.The short tracks of course are just Hard/Blues Rock pieces with strong guitar moves, expressive vocals and jazzy piano parts, very catchy and with typical song structures.As the compositions get longer though, things become more complicated.The guitars become sharper and the riffing monsterous and attacking like in the long ''Tu Forma Real'', while the rhythm section sounds a bit more powerful.Moreover the work of Fogliatta on keys becomes a main component of Polifemo's approach.Dirty organ themes, soft piano themes and suprisingly some lovely moog synth solos (am I the only one to hear some evident Italian Prog resemblances in these parts?) make the music enganging and more progressive, while the arrangements are definitely demanding with long instrumental parts and a fair amount of breaks.

While this should'nt be listed among the best Argentinian Prog releases, ''Polifemo'' is an album filled with nice moments of bluesy Progressive Rock with a touch of Classic Prog in the keyboard work.We should'nt expect less from such a talented line-up.Recommended and notice that EMI's CD reissue contains all four tracks of Polifemo's couple of early singes as bonus material.