UN SEGUNDO

"un segundo"; is a more vertiginous and hard proposal than the first, highly experimental music, excelent technic. highly recomended group to see live, impressive energy. Happily, i think is a rare among most of mexican (and world) groups that attach with a "rusted" music proposals.

...A SECOND

Yes, their second release and one more step to become the most innovative and creative Mexican act.

This album is even more experimental and slower to digest than the 1st one, more in the avant-garde/RIO style but as always being a smart mixure of many genres, and a very original output.

Some songs stay in the Levin/80´s KC style like "Cosmica" and "Escapista" with a jazzy touch, and some others explore further like "Intro" with strange music effects and indian-like singing,"El Camino" with their classic combination of sax, acustic guitar and percussions, or "Balun Canan" which even sounds a little space/psychedelic at the beginning to turn into a very melodic piece with nice clarinet.

And also they can go from middle-east with "Mil Noches" to the ancient south american lands with "Retorno"wich contains flute, guitar and drums in a pre-hispanic vein. And there are real gems like "In Statu" which proves how good Stick player Mauricio Sotelo is, "Elementos" starting very melodic and combining different wind instruments and strings.

The rest of the tracks are "fillers" or connections to the songs, and they are basicly street, cars and train noises and sounds, with people chating, and all of them have names referring to traveling which i think is the main subject of the album, shown on the artwork too (very original BTW).

This is an excellent effort showing the incledible skills of these creative musicians, that i insist, they deserve more exposure and attention of all kinds of prog lovers.

4 stars

Viva el Prog!

I won't be as laudatory about this second album from "Cabezas De Cera" as my fellow countrymen (OK, I'm only half Mexican?).

It is indeed quite experimental music the one featured here. Quite (too) jazzy as well. As I have said about their debut one: I only got interested in the band because they were Mexican. But if you are willing to listen to some more conventional prog music, I can recommend you "Cast". Because with "Cabezas", it might turn to a "rompe cabezas" for sure.

I can't really fancy their style with is quite complex, at the very edge of the eclectic genre and the full experimental one. At times, a little breeze of fresh air appears ("In Statu"). It is the occasion to listen to some fine flute and good ethnic music as well.

"En Camino" is of another vein: the acoustic guitar intro is quite pleasant, very much Spanish oriented. It is combined with some heavier and wild passages which are quite impressive. One of my fave here. Together with the following "Elementos" which is another folkish/ethnic song with lots of rhythm and fluting. Very pleasant.

"Escalapista" is more jazz oriented: symphonic at first it turns into free jazz later on. No need to tell you that this is not frankly my cup of tea. The loose and experimental "Balun Canan" is not the type of track which is going change my mind about this album: very eclectic indeed but totally lacking in harmonious passages.

This album is truly difficult to get into and in my books, it only deserves two stars. Even if the closing "Retorno" is one of the most pleasant song available.

In my own humble opinion, I consider Cabezas de Cera one of the best prog bands in my country. I have had the opportunity to see them live, and it is quite a wonderful show. Un Segundo, is the second album of the band and it takes just one second to take the road trip alongside with CDC. The album is full of experimentation, jazz sounds, folk movements, excellent instrumentation ... totally avant-garde. This trio definitely gets you during the whole album with their music that portrays influences of such bands as Banda Elástica and King Crimson. Another remarkable thing is the production, where one can see the attention paid to details. A bit lower than the first album, Un Segundo keeps a high standard for the band.

Cabezas De Cera had come really close with their sound engineer Edgar Arrelin.In fact they considered him to be the fourth ''hidden'' member of the group, the man who took their sound to another level.An example of his stunning work can be heard on the band's second album ''Un segundo'', released independently in 2002.This was yet another work by the Mexicans with a wide instrumental armour.

Imagine if KING CRIMSON were actually a Latin-American group, influenced by Mexican Folk Music to get the picture of this high-octane trio from Mexico City.''Un segundo'' is an innovative and deeply challenging album, where short but extremely rich instrumental pieces are carefully split by the interruption of themes, mostly based on sound effects, narrations, samplers and electronics.Music is complex but always charming, led by scratching electric guitars and pounding drums, surrounded by a vast palette of traditional instruments like the violin, the clarinet, the saxophone and the archaic flutes.The compositions start from powerful, groovy parts to go through folky enviroments with a Latin-spiced atmosphere and get back into loose, almost improvised performances with a jazzy background.Of course. it's not always about dominant, complicated music in here, some displayed acoustic textures sound more down-to-earth and less emphatic but not uninteresting at all, surrounded by the sax or flutes.An amalgam of Folk, Jazz, Fusion, Rock and Electronic Music, delivered with an experimental attitude, producing atonal moments, passionate solos, punchy rhythms and atmospheric innovations.

A winner by all means.Not the main priority of lovers of more melodic offerings, but a must-have for anyone searching for dense and intricate contemporary Prog Rock.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.