WITH A LITTLE HELL FROM MY FRIENDS

GRECO BASTIÁN has been thrilling the avant-prog underground for a few years now ever since he unleashed his debut "Persian American" in 2019 to critical acclaim for his bold dexterous melding of the difficult music section of avant-prog with math rock as well as the more pacifying stabilizing zeuhl sounds. A true outlier coming from Acapulco, Mexico, BASTIÁN has rekindled the fun factor in the genre by tackling the knotty prog excess of bands like Magma, King Crimson, Present, Koenjihyakkei and other rockers in opposition along with the humorous whimsy of Frank Zappa and England's Canterbury Scene.

What better way to make a classic album than WITH A LITTLE HELL FROM MY FRIENDS, the outrageously cool album title that makes a bit of a reference to The Beatles' classic tune, Nice! And hell from some friends indeed with a star-studded cast that includes FIFTEEN guest stars that include Tatsuya Yoshida, Jean-Luc Plouvier, Matt Lebofsky and a whole bunch of others. It's a freekin' avant-prog party, this one! This album features nine exhilarating tracks that clock in around 41 minutes and all i can say is WOW!!! This album features music that avant-prog dreams are made of! The album doesn't waste any time getting down to business. The opening "Proteo Revampirizado" showcases a group of virtuosos walking the fine line between melodic prog rock along with all those unconventionalities of the avant-prog world.

In many ways this is like a various artists release as each track features a different lineup with only the man of the hour GRECO BASTIÁN performing piano and keyboards on every track on board. This album ambitiously and successfully melds interesting melodic developments with avant-garde and Rock In Opposition technicalities. The second track "Zidane Racist" for example sounds like the theme to a spy-fi thriller only embellished with the inverted interests of Henry Cow only an adrenaline. Oh yeah, this is fast paced in yer face avant-prog experience all the way through and for those of us who live for quick tempos grooves in avant-invertedness fashion this is the soundtrack of total contentment. It's just all so well paced! Every little detail is brilliantly executed with the tones, timbres, rhythms, musical scales, production techniques and musical motifs performing like a brilliant Cirque du Soleil performance!

This album really is the epitome of brutal prog. Incessant rampant tempos coalesce with crazy complex time signatures and even more demanding compositional fortitude. The musicianship on this one is off the chart and the fact that so many disparate musicians somehow came together and built of the strengths of the others is almost unthinkable! While many supergroup projects flail due to too many chefs in the kitchen, this one actually benefits from egos on hold for the sake of crafting a greater than the sum of the parts magnanimous roster of excellence. Manic, technical and utterly progressive, WITH A LITTLE HELL FROM MY FRIENDS offers a thrilling non-stop ride through the brilliance of the avant-prog universe only set to full roller coaster ride setting rather than a wimpy merry-go-round on the Boardwalk.

Basically what we have here is a crazy mix of avant-prog, math rock and zeuhl. Think Ruins jamming with Henry Cow, Hella and Secret Chiefs 3 and you're getting close. Add to that, each of those bands has fully downloaded every aspect about the other. Is it A.I. or just human freakin' creativity run amok? Well, i don't know but all i can say is this is a wild ride and an intoxicating musical head rush where so many avant-musical dreams are crammed into a single album's experience! It's melodic, it's dissonant, it's atonal, it's angular, it's rhythmic, it's chaotic, it's freakin' fun as hell! This album really showcases how well humans can co-create en masse like very few albums of the recent past. I'm literally blown away by how well this one came together. I'm gushing while it's rushing and while many feel like flushing it away all i can say is it's an acquired taste so please don't waste all your time if you're not based!

Also there's a bit of Oingo Boingo type of craziness to this. Danny Elfman sounds like an influence in the compositional flow with some tracks like "Aclowntrenós" reminding me of 
The Simpsons theme. What's crazy about this is this project balanced the accessible elements of prog with the crazy alienating factors. It's just super well done and anyone who loves avant-prog that doesn't compromise will totally love this. For any who need a ballad to catch their breath, this is not for you! This is music that goes for the avant-prog jugular without being complex for complexity's sake. This is music that is based on beautiful melodic flows that just happens to incorporate bizarre complexities to elevate it into a totally new level of progginess. One of my faves of 2022. Very much looking forward to the next offering of Señor BASTIÁN. Even a surprise Christmas song, LOL!