CUCAMONGA

There are dissonances, pauses and sudden changes in tempo which are frequently ingredients of RIO and Avant, but the background is clearly jazz even in the most chaotic and noisy tracks like "Tu Guaina".

The mood changes frequently. "Variaciones Sobra Tu Hermana" (Variations about your sister) sounds like contemporary classic but is also close to the chamber rock of Art Zoyd and Univers Zero or even to the latest Stormy Six. Episodes of this kind exist together with grotesque phases, but in any case the jazz element is always present, even in the fantastic percussion solo which opens "Tillana". Not to say of the paino/sax crescendo which follows. The sounds are a bit dark but the mood has something of Canterbury, specially in a short section at around minute 2:30.

Loops and tapes play their part too. The intro of "Cerrazon en el Teyu Cuare" (Cerrazon means "closure" or "captivity". Teyu Cuare is a place at the delta of Parana' river). This is probably one of the few overdubbing applied in post-production to an album that is almost tentirely recorded live in studio. Only the intro. The rest of the track passes through a noisy jazz passage and goes into a slow atmospheric piece of beauty with bass, piano and alto sax (plus tapes).

After one intense and excellent minute and 20 secs of free jazz ending like an old Pink Floyd's song (guess which?) we arrive at the last track. "Cletalandia" opens as an orchestral piece in the vein of Weather Reports but with more dissonances. Voiceovers (in Spanish) come to put the music in the background. The joke of speeding up and slowing down their playback sounds very Zappa-esque. My Spanish is not that good to understand everything the characters say, but it looks funny. When they stop we go back to (excellent) chamber rock. One of the main characteristics of this band is to put "a bit of everything" inside the same track. The reprise of the main theme is driven by the bass. It's everything but dark even with some dissonances. A very happy handing for an exciting avant-jazz-rio album.

Rating it is not easy. My temptation, driven by the enthusiasm, is to consider it a masterpiece, but after falling in love with it, the rationale part of myself says that 4 are a better rating. Regardless the rating, if you like the genre buy it. It's only defect is the length as 40 minutes albums belong more to the vinyl era than to now. Anyway a short album is better than a long one full of fillers.