NÚCLEOS

Platurno is one of the most promising younger bands in Chile's progressive rock scene. You can almost touch the youth of their musical offer by identifying certain levels of flatness in the writing department, as well as some passages in which the musicians don't gel their mutual interaction with reasonable perfection. But there are also very notable moments in the repertoire of Núcleos, their effective debut album. Platurno's prog music is based on a mixture of melodic prog-metal, space-rock and modern symphonic prog, with some added touches of jazz-heavy-prog (not unlike Planet X or their compatriot band Australis). Sebastián Aguayo's keyboards and Felipe Rivera's guitar pretty much share the spotlight alternatedly during the ensemble's excursions: drummer Andrés Aguayo provides a solid foundation for the aforesaid excursions, with tasteful use of moderately complex resources that don't kill the main motifs' basic dynamics. Dynamics is, by the way, the band's main forte, more than composition. Platurno doesn't show a bombastic addiction to long-term exhibitions: most tracks in the album stand between the 4'30" and 5'30" marks. Almost all the material is purely instrumental, with the guitarist providing some lead vocals (not too abundant, luckily, since his range and power are both quite limited) to a couple of songs. The namesake opener gets started with spacey synth layers that soon enough open the door for the emergence of the guitar riffs that sustain the main theme. 'La Maga' (the first sung piece) bears a curious confluence of funky-rock cadences and soaring psychedelic ambiences. 'Sueños de Panal' is a slow jam with a pronounced spacey feel: this and the subtile blues undertones present on the guitar deliveries may remind the listener of early 70s Pink Floyd; 'Cósmico V2' persists on the spacey factor, albeit balanced against the melodic jazz-rock tones provided by the main theme. 'Anhelos' shows Platurno at their most symphonic, with a prominent presence of solidly elaborated piano scales and elegant guitar solos. '. (3 Puntos)' is formed by aleatory vibes sounds on synth, being a brief prelude to 'Mundo del Amanecer', which is arguably the catchiest track in the album: its main atmosphere is a strong reminder of Planet X with added neo-prog touches and symphonic prog ornaments that bring some convenient solmenity to the main motif's development. 'Quintay' goes to far different places, since it is basically a dialogue between bucolic classical guitar arpeggios and mysterious phrases on slide guitar. The final result is somewhat disturbing, despite the fact that the calm sounds of the classical guitar is featured in the mix. Another soft, drumless piece follows: 'Perdido' is a sung ballad with a featured violin (played by a guest) that floats confidently above the floor made of guitar and piano constrained sounds. The album is closed up with the dual sequence of 'Pirata' and 'Resquebraja', which completes the heavy side of Platurno. It's a nice way to end an album that, in my opinion, doesn't qualify as truly essential, but should be paid attention to anyway, since it is the manifesto of a progressive promise that reveals interesting hints of more focused things to come in future releases. Let's hope that Platurno have more time to evolve and mature properly as a musical unit. Núcleus is a very good album.

3.5 stars. I seem to have a thing for music from Chile. So many great bands, and PLATURNO are a promising young band that have a bright future. The two styles of music that stand out the most on "Nucleos" are heavy and spacey. A combination that I love.

"Nucleos" is very spacey to begin with until the guitar comes grinding in around 1 1/2 minutes. The guitar really lets loose a minute later and it comes and goes throughout. "La Maga" opens with bass and drums as the tempo starts to pick up before a minute as the guitar joins the fray. A calm with synths 2 minutes in. Great atmosphere. Vocals slowly start to sing 2 1/2 minutes in. Heaviness is back 4 minutes in. Excellent track. "Suenos De Panal" opens with haunting synths. Drums then guitar a minute in. A very relaxing tune. "Cosmico V2" opens with some good, raw guitar. A Fripp-like melody quickly takes over. This is intricate and oh so impressive. It gets spacey before 2 minutes. Love the atmosphere as the guitar cries out. Emotional section after 4 minutes. Then back to the Fripp-like guitar before 5 minutes.

"Anhelo" opens with piano that reminds me of Kevin Moore when the tempo picks up 40 secionds in. Guitar comes in grinding away followed by drums. Great track ! "..." is a short piece with what sounds like xylophone. "Mundo Del Amanecer" opens with heavy drums and guitar as synths join in. A nice heavy soundscape is the result. The guitar does break away with some solos as it plays out. "Quintay" has an interesting soundscape with lots of atmosphere and acoustic guitar. A calm after 3 minutes with more acoustic guitar. "Perdido" opens with piano as some guest violin joins in. Vocals replace the violin as they continue to trade off. "Pirata" is a short instrumental as guitars circle the wagons and drums join in. "Resquebraja" is a fantastic closer as we get keys, riffs and some killer guitar.

I really like this album a lot, a promising debut.

Let's hear it for Platurno!

Without a doubt, Platurno are one of the most promising bands from Chile and along with Mar de Robles are nowadays my favourite ones from that country. My history with Platurno began when i knew they would perform at the BajaProg Fest, so i visited their myspace site and liked what i heard, but better was when i met them and see them playing alive, what a great band with excellent trained and talented musicians, but besides that, they are better people, modest and intelligent guys who i am pleased to have met, and hope to see them again in some point of our lives.

Platurno released in 2006 their debut album called Nucleos and let me tell you that they are looking forward to their second release! which i am eagerly waiting for, this album features 11 songs with an average of 4 minutes, and a total lenght of 45 minutes approx.

The album kicks off with a powerful song, the title track Nucleos which starts with a kind of an spacey mood, but then turns into a Crimsonian guitar style oriented, i believe one of their obvious influences (as i can judge by some tracks) was King Crimson. This is an excellent opener that will catach your attention.

La Maga opens with a soft sound, but that is just the very beginning since later it turns into a more aggressive and faster song, it has an excellent drumming and is one of the only two songs that have vocals, the guitar man Felipe Rivera is who provides the vocals with a delicate touch and a very nice keyboard background, the last minutes of the song involves a heavier guitar style and a noticeable percussion work.

Sueños de Panal, as the first song it also starts with a kind of spacey keyboard soundwith a slow mood, then the guitars appears and this song provokes a kind of relaxing mood, for the spacey notes i believe that bands like Tangerine Dream may have been played in the member's ipods.

Cosmico V2 is a wonderful track, it creates a beautiful and melodic atmosphere, the guitars will remind you again to some Crimson's Discipline era, but the difference here are that those guitars are accompanied with again an spacey keyboard sound and a delicate percussion, after some minutes the song becomes even softier and puts you in the song's mood immediately, at the end the song returns to the guitar driven style, this is one of their finest moments.

Anhelo has a classic piano introduction by Sebastian Aguayo, after some seconds the other instruments enter and create a very nice melody, but to be honest this is one of my less prefered songs from the album.

We are reaching the half of the album with ...(3 puntos) which is a short piece which is like the preambl e to the following one, this is only a moment with some keyboard sound like a marimba.

And now one of my favourite moments is Mundo del Amanecer, which was the only song i really recognized when i see them live, and it stays as my personal favourite, it has an aggressive and of course heavier feeling, the keyboards are at it's best and the whole track is truly enjoyable, it has fabolous guitar riffs and a constant and clean drumming.

Quintay begins with some atmospheric synth and then acoustic guitars that gives it a folkish touch, after some moments the song becomes a bit strange with some kind of improv sound and a nervous atmosphere in some moments, it fades out as it began.

Perdido is a beautiful song, the second and last track featuring vocals, and the first and only track that has a violin sound provided by a guest musician, while the vocals appear we will be trapped in a melodic piano sound, i don't know why but i feel this is a very personal song of the band.

Pirata is the other short song with a heavier style and with the predominant sound of the guitars, this track is actually the prelude to the last song of the album which is called Resquebraja, and follows up immediately the previous one, with a very alike heavy guitar driven style, it is an excellent way of finishing an excellent album.

Being this their debut album, what we can only ask them is to maintain their great and mature sound they have despite being a young band, an album that i really like and can recommend to all of you, and as i said before, i am eagerly waiting for their second effort which who knows may be released at the end of this year or the next one.

My final grade, 4 stars, excellent addition to any prog lover and highly recommendable.

Enjoy it!

Young band from Chile, based in Villa Alemana in the region of Valparaiso.The leading trio of Platurno are guitarist Felipe Rivera, keyboardist Sebastian Aguayo and drummer Andres Aguayo, who formed the band in 2001.It wasn't until 2006, when they debuted with the album ''Nucleos'', released on Mylodon Records and distributed in Europe by Musea.It features guest appearances by Edison Atencio on bass and Priscila Valenzuela on violin.

The first effort of Platurno is a constant, mainly instrumental battle of hard-edged grooves, tricky riffs and soaring synthesizers in modern-sounding and fairly adventurous compositions.A more spacey KING CRIMSON?Yes, you can call their music this way.Nevertheless the trio has worked on their ideas with intelligence and passion.There are some nice blends of hypnotic, sonic textures full of dissonant and distorted music with more sharp and guitar-driven parts, offered through a dark and sinister atmosphere.But the biggest contribution comes from the nice use of synthesizers, thus the ability of Platurno to leave guitar-led textures for more atmospheric and spacey soundscapes adds a very attractive color in their music.The album lacks a strong sense of melody, but the sensitive piano themes, the unique sound of synths and the numerous smoother passages definitely deliver a sensational mood.

Pretty nice and semi-original debut, which should find place in any decent collection.From KING CRIMSON fans to PORCUPINE TREE maniacs and even Fusion freaks.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.