ANABELAS

1978 was a good year for Argentinians. Who could forget Mario Kempes, Ubaldo Fillol, Leopoldo Luque or Daniel Passarella? Never mind that they needed the junta to buy the 6-0 victory against Peru to progress to the World Cup final in football, and to bribe the referee, Sergio Gonella to secure the win against Holland...

However, the greatest Argentinian achievement of 1978 was the release of Bubu's Anabelas. This "band" lasted only this album, which was composed by Daniel Andreoli, who didn't play in the band. He was a fan of Igor Stravinsky and King Crimson, and you can hear that quite easily.

Anabelas comprises three works, of which the first El cortejo de un día amarillo fills the first side of a vinyl. It is a marvelous symphonic piece with umpteen riffs, popping up one after another, and constantly progressing into new ones. There are a couple of style allusions: the first refers to God Save The Queen and the latter to the Rite of Spring, and more precisely to the Augurs of Spring / Dances of the Young Girls. The ability of the instrumental sextet is very good, and especially the violinist Sergio Polizzi works very well. Usually the violin is misused in rock music: it is recorded directly from the bridge with a contact microphone, which makes the sound plastic, dull and even ugly, but here the violin is given sonic space with a high quality recording.

The second side is somewhat less remarkable, but the first piece, El viaje de Anabelas is a fantastic work in two movements. The first opens with a somewhat feral choir, and evolves into another great set of riffs, until there's a short general pause, after which the music turns into wildly swinging rock, where the singer Petty Guelache comes to foreground. The concluding piece, Sueños de maniquí is perhaps the weakest in the album, but it is still a great nine+ minutes of prog with panache.

I recommend this album to anybody. The funny thing is, I find it hard to tell why I feel it only deserves four stars, but let that be four and half. (4.49)