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Alas - Pinta Tu Aldea CD (album) cover

PINTA TU ALDEA

Alas

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.88 | 69 ratings

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memowakeman
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Alas from Argentina

Well i donīt know why i hadnīt reviewed this album before, since i had already written my review for their first album and their compillation one, actually i was pretty sure that i had done it before, but now that i visited this albumīs page noticed that i was wrong, so itīs time to do it.

This is another one exquisite band from Argentina which released only 2 albums, the first one being released in 1976 as a eponymous album and featuring 3 members ala ELP, the musical orientation of that album was more bombastic very reminiscent to ELP indeed, and with the fusion touch ala Return to Forever, that was a great debut album, but later the former bass/guitar player Alex Zucker left the band, he was replaced by a very talented musician, Pedro Aznar. So they worked and made compositions and in 1978 released what later would be their last album, "Pinta tu Aldea" which fortunately was another great album, but with a different style, this time the bombastic ELP-is music disappeared and instead, they focused in giving a very traditional style, Tango, and imagine the combination of a magnific jazz/fusion album with the exquisite and unique sound of Tango, it makes this album very peculiar and great.

A pleasant 40-minute listening will be found here, featuring 4 great songs with 10 minutes average each one, just another proof that prog in Argentina was really amazing in the 70s, so please have a listen to these kind of bands, not only from Argentina but from South-America, there are really a lot of gems.

Pinta tu Aldea kicks off with a magnific track called "A Quienes Si No" which has 10 very worth listening minutes with a fantastic intro which leads to the keyboard playing in a Focus or ELP style in a moderate way, then it turns into their fusion style making a fantastic harmony between the musicians, great keyboard playing above all. "Pinta tu Aldea" the title track is the first one which shows the different and original style featuring that Argentinian Tango sound,, what a perfect combination between Jazz and Tango, here the bass playing is magnific as well as the bandoneon (instrument used for Tango purposes) and with a unique sound, there is a passage on this song when it is slow and with a classical touch, then it returns again to the tango-fusion style, great song!

"La Casa del Mosquito" is the shortest song, and it has another extra instrument which is the flute, this time appearing since the very beginning of the song with a delicate sound accompanied by a soft piano, then the song becomes a bit faster and powerful where we can hear a magnific acoustic guitar here and there, the flute still sounding and the song is probably the jazziest of them all, a proof of the different directiopn of the album is clearly listenable here. "Silencio de Aguas Profundas" is the one which finishes this great album, this song again features both the flute and the bandoneon, probaly this is the most ambitious of them all where they tried to show that the could do anything they wanted to, not my favorite song of the album but still good, it feels like if i were in a restaurant having a nice meal and listening to a soft jazz- tango song.

Different from their first effort, but again good and worth listening, 4 stars , recommendable to anyone.

memowakeman | 4/5 |

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