FLOR DE LOTO

This debut album by Peruvian band FLOR DE LOTO actually has been a very nice surprise for me when I received it more than one year ago. In fact I ordered it without knowing anything about that group and before hearing one single note from them, mainly inspired by the nice surrealistic cover art. Of course one's always happy when such "blind" purchases turn out to be very worthy and one realizes after the very first listen already that the music's even more appealing than the artwork.

Though certainly to be called derivative in a way what these brilliant musicians are offering here it's as well sounding much inspiring and quite unique on the other hand. The purely instrumental music dominated by excellent guitar and awesome flute play can be described as a blend of ethnic, jazz and psychedelic elements. Though revealing a similar style the ten fairly complex compositions on here are sounding quite versatile with an excellent rhythmic section and many shifts between more up-tempo and heavier tracks and more atmospheric dreamy ones. Most obvious comparison coming to one's mind listening to this music is of course JT but not only due to the occasional use of pan flute being typical for Inca folk music FLOR DE LOTO managed quite successful to generate their very own self-contained sound. I listened to this disk already quite a lot of times and it's for me with each repeated spin again a very exciting and enjoyable experience. BTW the funny psyche comic cover art can be unfolded to a 24 x 48 cm mini-poster (just as a marginal information for the grown-up kids amongst us).

I think this album by Peru's most important Prog band can be certainly considered an excellent addition to any collection and should appeal not only to fans of instrumental or folk progressive music.