WITH A LITTLE HELL FROM MY FRIENDS

Greco Bastian is a Mexican composer and multi-instrumentalist who has attracted world-wide attention for the music he creates. The problem for Greco is that he's not a talented enough musician to actually play his own compositions. So between fans and fellow musicians alike telling him he needs help with this he finally reached out to the Avant world looking for help with this 2022 record. What a response!

Counting Greco we get six Mexican musicians on here as Greco adds effects to all these compositions in the studio. There are ten guests helping out and I'm familiar with eight of them so I'll mention them. Japan is well represented with Ryoko Ono from SAX RUINS on sax, Patrick Shiroishi from CORIMA on sax and the legendary drummer Tatsuya Yoshida from RUINS, KOREKYOJINN and KOENJIHYAKKEI. Who would have thought the X-LEGGED SALLY guitarist would help out from Belgium or Jean-Luc Plouvier from UNIVERS ZERO adding piano. Matt Lebofsky bass from MIRTHKON and SECRET CHIEFS 3, Vincent Sicot- Vantalon keyboards from UNIT WAIL and Emmett Elvin guitar and bass from GUAPO.

It's kind of cool that the first four tracks are the four longest pieces and the songs that feature almost all of the guest with the five shorter pieces featuring more the local musicians. Mexico has a very good Avant history with Jose Luis Fernandez Ledesma leading that pack but NAZCA, DECIBEL, BANDA ELASTICA and many more have followed in these footsteps and maybe the brightest of them all is Greco Bastian who knows? It does come as advertised being frantic, uptempo but Greco always changes things up and makes it interesting.

I have to say this was love at first listen and I was worried about this. Having no vocals helps me as I'm not into that fast paced singing and sound we get so often in the Avant world. But hearing the opener "Proteo Revampirizado" for the first time relieved a lot of anxiety. Dense, complex and oh yeah there are vocals on the opener I forgot but they are almost in the background. Some intense sax from Ryoko here. "Zidane Racist" opens with all these synths and an uptempo sound that right away brought THE FLOWER KINGS to mind I kid you not, still does. Again dense and complex with so much going on. Two bass players here and some angular guitar later.

"Zeuhlito Lindo" is stacked with guests and continues that relentless pace. Plouvier adds piano after 4 minutes. That's three intense tracks in a row and the fourth one "Oniontown" while powerful at times gives us some space to breathe. The UNIT WAIL keyboardist is here while our Mexican musicians really shine with the bass and guitar especially. Lots of xylophone spread throughout the final five pieces but some variety within the Avant field. "D.A.S." is the first mid-paced tune but it's also the shortest at just over 2 minutes. The guitar is very distorted to open "Don't Open Till Xmas". The closer "Exit Filming For A Muse" might be the most impressive composition on here. When it kicks into gear we also get another melody cycling over top, just really impressive Mr. Bastian.

A very solid 4 stars and another great example of the talent that there is in Mexico.