MEDUSA: EN VIVO EN BUENOS AIRES

I learn that this band is a notable Peruvian Prog-Folk group with six studio albums since 2005; when I received the CD/DVD to be reviewed (elsewhere), I thought FLOR DE LOTO to be a relatively new hard rock act from Argentina, as I tried to read the texts in Spanish... Medusa offers a 71-minute concert from Buenos Aires, dating from November 2014.

The music heard here is mainly hard rock with some slight folk nuances and even slighter prog elements. I'm not much into hard rock myself, so the whole set sounds pretty much the same from start to end into my ears. The song-oriented compositions are averagely rather fast and heavy with the usual wall of electric guitar. There's also a female [background] vocalist on stage, but her role is amazingly minimal. Even in the one and only track ('Desapareciendo') to feature her "voz principal", the totally unspectacular voice of frontman Alonso Herrera pushes forward.

The sonic quality is quite good while the visual side of the DVD is somewhat modest, concerning both the lights and other stage settings and the camera work. The six bonus videos feature the same songs, either as regular, amateurish gig clips or being more or less ruined by clumsy editing with colour and mirror image effects. I bet the studio albums reveal the band's progressive and folk music leanings much better. The flutes and charango guitar played by one member are colouring the sound very nicely here and there while the songs themselves are basically all too commonplace Western hard rock. 2½ stars rounded up for good digipak design.

Peruvian band FLOR DE LOTO has been an active and vital part of the progressive rock scene in Peru for a good number of years, and since they started to release their music on CD just over ten years ago, a new production by the band has hit the shelves just about every other year. "Medusa", their first live production ever, was jointly released by Azafran Records and Musea Records in the fall of 2015.

The main charm of this live CD and DVD package is to see and hear a tight, seasoned live band in action, where what appears to have been a really good performance has been captured more or less exactly as it was. If it is a case of me as a listener getting used to the sound as this concert unfolds or whether it's an actual case of the sound and mix getting improved as the concert unfolds, I don't truly know, but the impression I'm left with is that the sound and balancing is a bit off at the start, and then improves in quality along the way, which may well be something of a detrimental feature for those not familiar with this band from previous occasions. Due to that I'd first and foremost recommend this production mainly to those already familiar with the band. Those with a fascination for live productions that strive to be as authentic as possible might also want to check this one out, as the impression I have is that this concert has been captured pretty much exactly how it was, without all that much tinkering done to the audio afterwards.