QUETZALCOATL

What a great, great album! Corima is a band that plays in the USA but actually started in Mexico. Quetzalcóatl means "feathered snake" in Nahuatl and is a god in many ancient mexican cultures, he is the main character in this album. Although there are a lot of songs, there are only 4, three of them being long suites and one 7 minute intrumental. The first suite is "Corima Iss De Hündin!", goes from song 1 to song 8 and is 25 minutes long. The other is the "Quetzalcoatl" suite, goes from song 11 to 17 and lasts 19 and-a-half minutes. All of this album is a real monster of modern Zeuhl, combined with some avant-jazz fusion parts that make it incredible. I particularily love the title track suite and Tezcatlipoca (another ancient god), which are the songs that best take Zeuhl, but man this whole record is amazing. I will give 5 stars because this band shows the potential in progressive music that my country has, the theme is really uncommon and the music is beyond great. Zeuhl at its very peak and my second favorite Zeuhl album, being beaten by Eskaton's "4 Visions" by an inch.

CORIMA are a Zeuhl band based out of Texas and they are greatly influenced by the Japanese style of Zeuhl as I thought of both RUINS and KOENJIHYAKKEI while playing this record. Even the cover art is in the Japanese style plus we get a couple of Americans playing on here who have Japanese last names. So the music is often frantic and played at a fast pace and we get both male and female vocals. Add violin and sax to the sound as well which adds a different flavour to the Zeuhl sound. To be honest I'm not into crazy, fast paced music and while KOENJIHYKKEI are a favourite of many on this site I just can't get into them or unfortunately this album by CORIMA, just my tastes of course.

This is a long one at just under 70 minutes and while the first eight songs and the final seven songs are both supposed to be long suites I find that neither of them come across as being suites as these short songs don't seem to flow or be connected to each other in my opinion. I love the title of the first song though "Corima Iss De Hundin!", that's just too funny. Vocals dominate this song and they are male and female reminding me of MAGMA. On "Gurdhait Nefertatt" we still get vocals but the violin comes in over top. It picks up speed before a minute and fast paced vocals follow. "Vhlakoshpetzz" is piano and drum led to start as the violin joins in. Again this is fast paced and frantic, and this continues on the next song "Sunna Domitiwhando".

Up next is "Wlakezz Fhunder" which opens with electric piano and drums as the violin joins in. It picks up quickly with multi-vocals. Not a fan at all. Female vocals to the fore around 2 minutes. "Krishkalidortz" is better as we get sax and drums to start with the violin over top. Male vocals and a deeper sounding soundscape follow and these soundscapes will be contrasted. "Divindondiwua" has relaxed piano melodies as the violin and vocals join in. Not a fan. "Khozmikh Kahiledrios" ends the first suite. It opens with this swinging sound as bass, drums and violin standout. Vocal melodies follow. A much better sound arrives before 1 1/2 minutes as we get some much needed upfront bass. Yeah we need more of that. Check out the fuzzed out keys(again thankyou) before 3 minutes. Vocals are the focus 5 1/2 minutes in and dissonant sax ends it. They hit on a few things in this song that I wish were prominent throughout.

"Zhuntra" has laid back electric piano to start as violin and bass join in. It turns lighter with intricate sounds including flute. Violin and drums lead before 3 minutes as it becomes intense. "Tezcatlipoca" is the longest song at over 17 minutes. It has a zeuhlish start with the focus on the male and female vocals. The tempo picks up with the vocals still being the focus, not a fan. I like the flute though. A change before 4 minutes as the vocals stop but the fast paced instrumental work continues. Guitar follows then these crazy vocal expressions arrive. Violin and flute lead around 7 minutes then distorted keys before 8 minutes as it calms down. Vocals are back at 10 1/2 minutes and I like the guitar before 16 minutes.

"Quetzalcoatl" starts the final suite and it hits the ground running with male and female vocals leading the way. "Kualtiliocayotl" is also dominated by vocals, drums and violin although sax arrives before 2 minutes. "Iknoakayotl" is uptempo with violin joining in before 1 1/2 minutes followed by vocals. I like the drumming before 3 minutes. "Necnomatlicayotl" is uptempo and all instrumental while "Teiknottalistli" is heavier but slower with piano before the vocals and violin join in. "Neltococayotl" sounds great early on with the bass and drums. It seems to speed up as it goes. "Teomatilistli" ends it with drums and piano leading in this uptempo closer. Vocals and violin join in as well.

Clearly I'm in the minority here with my rating and opinions as this album is rated very highly everywhere I looked. This just isn't the style of Zeuhl that I enjoy.

CORIMA is one of the many newer zeuhl bands inspired by influences far outside of the confines of classic Magma. This band that originated in 2005 in El Paso, Texas by high school friends Francisco Casanova (keyboards), Sergio Ravelo (drums), Juan Tarin (bass), Erik Martinez (guitar), and Jaime Silva (guitar) began by playing music influenced by several progressive rock bands such as King Crimson, Gong, ELP, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Soft Machine and local El Paso homies The Mars Volta which instilled a sense of punk energy into their oft frenetic stylistic approach.

Soon Erik Martinez and Jaime Silva left the band and CORIMA became a trio and together released a CD-R self-titled debut and then set out on an East Coast tour of the USA which found them touring the big cities of New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC. In 2009 Casanova and Revelo moved to Los Angeles to expand their horizons and immediately began playing as a duo and in the process met bassist Ryan Kamiyamazaki and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi and then invited them into the band which led to a more energized sound that crafted various progressive rock sounds around the more frenetic zeuhl approach as heard by other Japanese extremists such as Ruins and Koenjihyakkei. After a few more members to join, CORIMA was ready for action.

This new formation of CORIMA led the band into the studio where they recorded the first "proper" album QUETZALCOATL which was picked up by the French label Soleil Zeuhl and released in 2012. The band continued its massive touring schedule playing some renowned gigs and has in the process attracted a larger fanbase. QUETZALCOATL is a lengthy album just passing the 69 minute playing time and features 17 tracks most of which are below the 4 minute mark with only a couple exceptions, the most extreme being the 17 minute "Tezcatlipoca." The subject matter revolves around the Mesoamerican feathered serpent god QUETZALCOATL although the nonsensical lyrical content seems to be either gibberish or a self-constructed language in the vein of zeuhl founders Magma.

As far as zeuhl goes, CORIMA is rather traditional with bubbly bass driven rhythmic drive, accompanied by subtle accentuated percussion and stentorian multi-vocal parts fueled with jazzy melodic counterpoints. The saxophone brings some straight on jazz to the forefront at key moments however the addition of the violin not a standard zeuhl instrument brings a bit more of a gypsy swing feel to the overall mood in the vein of prog violinists such as Jean-Luc Ponty. The music while generally operating on fast frenetic tempos also sounds somewhat laid back as the tones and timbres are warm and inviting. It's not really until the swarm of vocal attacks really bring out the most bombastic features of CORIMA's approach. There are moments such as on the end of "Khozmikh Kavhiledrios" where all the instruments go stark raving mad and the violin suddenly sounds like a tortured cat.

I'd be remiss without mentioning the behemoth 17 minute blockbuster "Tezcatlipoca" which single-handedly swallows up a good quarter of the album's run. Well, it starts out with a nice vocal harmony session much in the spirit of classic Magma and then starts to engage in some weird Philip Glass style instrumental antics as heard on the fast parts of "Koyaanisqaatsi" or "Glassworks" but then ramps up the energy level and becomes more like a less frantic Ruins or a more polished Kenjihyakkei. From there the band pulls off some of its most ambitious instrumental gymnastics and technical workouts all the while keeping a smooth seamless rhythmic drive from derailing. The band's creativity just ramps up from there with a consistently entertaining delivery of changes including some of those Balkan folk swings as heard on classic Area's albums like "Arbeit Macht Frei." By far my favorite track on this excellent album.

The album concludes with a whopping seven more shorter tracks but doesn't let up in intensity and for many this entire experience will be an energetic overload but for those who love a feisty virtuosic performance for over an hour's playing time, then you can't go wrong with CORIMA who fall squarely into the classic zeuhl territory of French artists but engage in a violent punk-infused display of vitality unlike any other. The beauty of CORIMA though is in how well they walk the tight-rope between the traditional sensuality of the classic Magma style and the harsh anarchic approach of the Japanese invasion of the world of zeuhl. It certainly never ceases to amaze me how this seemingly simple style of hypnotic and receptively grooved style of progressive rock can evoke such varied creative responses with such acts emerging from unexpected parts of the world like Los Angeles! This is an awesome zeuhl experience!