21 CANAPÉS

Third release by one of Chile's most adventurous bands Akinetón Retard presents as the title assumes 21 little mostly very tasty little bits triggering the appetite for more. Unlike on their previous album dominated by aggressive saxophone and heavy guitar they were taking here a more reluctant at times acoustic approach using a broad range of instruments including violin and cello.

The 21 short pieces, mainly not longer than 1 - 2 minutes are very versatile and mostly in a jazzy vein with saxophone as the main instrument. Though there are quite a few ones being very enjoyable with a moderate degree of oddity and disharmony with "Enfermas enfermas", "La vida rota", "Potenzia", "Señorita depression", "Cocodrilos con Martini" and "Descargas" being the nicest tracks this disk is anything else than an easy listening. Ever present short excursions into Avant-garde territory are providing enough excitement and endeavour in between. Especially with the three ambient electronic experiments "Desiertos de lagos transparentes", "La vida rota karaoke" and "Transparencias de lagos desertos" which are moreover some of the longest tracks I've got problems to get used to and rather disturb my enjoyment I've to say. But anyway there's still enough enjoyable stuff on here like "La farsa gold" for solo violin and "La farsa platinum" for solo cello. The two already mentioned ones "Señorita depression" and "Cocodrilos con Martini" are as well fully acoustic, here dominated by guitar. Only two of the pieces have vocals (female, in Spanish language), "La vida rota" inspired by Latin-American folk and "Mosaicos" sounding a bit more oddly than the former one.

Overall this is an excellent disk with some unique and adventurous music providing a good picture of the versatility and talents of this great band. Possibly it might not be suitable for everyone but I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for something different. Definitely a must-have one for fans of Avant Prog!

Akinetón Retard is, in my humble opinion, a major asset in the current Latin American avant- garde rock scene, a band that has appropriated a most peculiar way of combining energy, sophistication and humor in a unique musical voice where Zeuhl, fusion, hard rock and experimental jazz are cohesively melted. The band's third effort "21 Canapés" has an unusual format of several short tracks ? most of them had been written for theater plays and modern ballet pieces, but were eventually left behind, so AR decided to compile a selection of 21 unused compositions and make a whole album out of them. This particular album does not get to exploit the band's typically inflammatory power as their other releases do, but again, this must not be labeled as a shortcoming or some sort of failure: instead, this should be regarded as a specific signal of the casual nature of the entire album's inception, and as such I should be understood and enjoyed. In other words, AR exercises a level of constraint as demanded by the concise frameworks that encapsulate the tracks' individual developments. 'Akinefrón' opens up the repertoire with an exciting fusion flavor, with a rhythmic scheme fully sustained by guitar, bass and percussives, while the dual saxes gladly indulge in their ordained sonic flights, in this way completing the subtle architecture of warm sensuality. Also fusion-centered but relying more heavily on Central American folklore are the two 'La Vida Rota' tracks, which mostly expose the standardized vibration of Cuban bolero. In fact, the guest female vocalist on the sung version properly delivers that sense of passion usually attributed to Latin American love songs. 'Hawai' is an eerie snippet full of exotic colors, while 'Farmacologías' is a lovely exercise on introspective textures (perhaps my favorite rack in the album). Later on, 'Señorita Depresión' will reiterate a similar introspective mood. On the other hand, 'Obseso y Convulso', 'Potencia' and 'Pilotos de Califont' are clearly stated manifestos of the sort of weird aggressiveness that are by now an undisputed AR-patent. It is such a pity that 'Oruros' had to be so short, since its moderately dense atmosphere has enough appeal as to justify a more thorough expansion, of course, in the old AR way. The challenging nature of 'Desiertos de Lagos Transparentes' and 'Bipolaretxea' are also good examples of how well AR can still express their own genuine artistic madness in this concise scheme. Not the greatest AR album, but "21 Canapés" happens to be still a very good avant- rock album to be properly enjoyed by avant-rock lovers.