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Alas - Alas CD (album) cover

ALAS

Alas

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.87 | 108 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

memowakeman
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Amazing debut!

This time in my will to support South American music, i am reviewing the albums of an extraordinary 70īs band from Argentina called Alas, sadly they only released a couple of albums in the second half of the 70īs, but it is great to know that both albums were released with the musicians at their best, so as you can imagine the quality of the album, musically talking is excellent.

Alas was a trio composed by Gustavo Moretto playing keyboards, wind instruments and also vocals, Alex Zucker on bass and guitars, and Carlos Riganti on percussion, all of them are excellent musicians, very talented and we can notice it while listening to their music. In 1976 they released their self-titled album and probably better known, they choose among their music, only 4 songs in this debut album but each one full of creativity and mind- blowing moments, honestly Alas became quickly in one of my favorite bands from Argentina, and believe me that that country has been very prolific in the progressive rock movement. probably their music is obscure and not as known as they wish, but little by little more people is being aware of those magnific bands.

"Buenos Aires solo es piedra" is the first song of this album and probably one of my favorite songs of the band, it is a 15-minute epic which blends all the necessary to be called a superb song, excellent musicianship, magnific changes throughout the song, and a big creativity, this song reminds me to both ELP in the bombastic moments, and Return to Forever in the Jazz Fusion and fast moments, also let me tell you that somewhere in the song we can listen to the vocals of Moretto and a calm part of the song where trumpet appears with a delicate sound, this song is divided in 6 mini pieces.

"La Muerte conto el dinero" is the longest song of them all, at first we can listen to the part with vocals, sung in Spanish of course, but reminding me a bit to the Italian school. Then again the ELP-inspired music appears, superb keyboard playing and awesome drumming, again, this song was divided in mini pieces or parts whatever you want to call it, and this is the song when the ELP influence is strongly shown, nevertheless Alas doesnīt lose their particular sound and their orientation to tjhe jazz fusion music. There is a part which is beautiful, very soft and calm, an exquisite flute sound, along with some birds singing and also the sound of the air, making a charming moment in this long song, then a drums solo and then it returns to the bombastic music.

"Rincon , mi viejo rincon" and "Aire" are the bonus tracks, both songs make 10 minutes of extra music, being the first one the shortest of them and probably the worst without being bad, and Aire probably the jazziest one, great bass lines and some excellent arrangements, nice bonus tracks.

I really like this album and itīs music, so i highly recommend it to you, have a listen to Alas, 4 stars!

memowakeman | 4/5 |

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