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Musically this is a beautiful mess, with influences from the likes of Zappa, Todd Rundgren, King Crimson, Cardiacs, Poisoned Electrick Head, Kate Bush, Jethro Tull and others. It feels very Seventies, not only in the instrumentation but in the breadth of the approach ? this is not something attempting to fit into anyone's idea of a pigeonhole, as music isn't a pigeon, and instead are going wherever the muse takes them, which is exactly how it should be. PA lists them as Eclectic, and that is probably right, although I can see Crossover trying to claim them as well.

There are just two issues with this album, it has taken too long to come out and is too short at 34 minutes. Hopefully the next one will be longer and it won't take so long to be released as this band is a hidden gem and once they see the light they shine beautifully. Another awesome release.

Dave has of course been at the cutting edge of music for 50 years, with The Muffins, Manna/Mirage and many others, and I always find his work exciting as it is just not possible to predict what journey he is going to take us on, not only with no idea of the final destination but how the travel will unravel. He is widely known and recognised for his woodwind and keyboard prowess, but if one wants to attempt to understand how his brain works then visit "Bande Noire" and sit back in reverence as he makes an accordion the foundation, slowly bringing in other instruments to provide depth and power before moving away again. The flute gives this a very Native American feel and listening to this I am in a dark forest, not knowing where I am but also not worried about being in these surroundings but instead am invigorated by what is around me.

Towards the end of the album is the deep and poignant "Not Enough Time, Billy". This takes us into a dreamscape which allows us to think of what might happen after death and is a homage to his friend and co-founder of The Muffins, Billy Swann, who sadly passed away last year. This album is a delight which refuses to sit within any particular genre, blending world music, jazz, prog, Canterbury and so much more into a collection which demands the listener pay full attention whilst playing this, preferably on headphones, as we are taken on a magic carpet ride of the senses.

ALCO FRISBASS released three studio albums and I feel each album was not as good as the previous one. So yes their debut is the one for me, and this PASKINEL album does rival it. I love how uniform it is with really just that one track "L'echo Noir" sounding somewhat different with the guest bassoon and violin. There is so much going on with each track. Tons of sounds. Dufour playing electric piano, organ and synths, while Chaput adds guitar and bass. There is distortion in those organ sounds at times bringing Canterbury to mind once in a while.

This is all instrumental and we get eight tracks worth 50 minutes. So many keyboard sounds here, it's awesome! My favourite song is the title track. Such a warm sound as we get electric piano, bass and beats. Guitar joins in then Canterbury organ around 2 1/2 minutes. The bass here and throughout is really good. Upfront and dirty. Mellotron too at times like at 5 1/2 minutes on here. "Belle En Tete" opens with a bass line as electric piano joins in then organ. This sounds great, and we get guitar a couple of times later on.

My second favourite track is that one that is a little different "L'echo Noir". It's the bassoon that brings the darkness while violin, upfront bass and electric piano lead the way. Love this track! Very RIO sounding as in UNIVERS ZERO. Nasty bass 3 minutes in and I like when the tempo picks up late with guitar. "One O'clock" might be the shortest piece on here but it sure has plenty of energy. That second track needs to be mentioned "Tartempion" with the guest flute and Canterbury organ later on. But it's the mesh of sounds all working together that is so impressive. So much going on.

This will go down as a top ten for 2023 in my musical world. And my favourite when including the three albums by the parent band ALCO FRISBASS. Not sure about that cover art though.

Debuts nowadays tend to be pretty high quality, since bands nowadays kind of know what they want, but obviously they can change over time and improve on what they have made in the past. I doubt Chercán will be any different, but dang they came in swinging! From the first track alone, I knew I was in for a great time, with a great mix of old school jazzy prog rock, with a more modern day experimental edge that one could see from the modern age of rock music.

While I feel like this is too modern feeling to be coined retro prog, one can tell this group was inspired by a few notable legacy bands from South America, namely I can pinpoint inspiration coming from Invisible, Bubu, and La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros. However, they don't just take their styles and run. No. They take those styles, and do so many backflips with them that they turn it into something super original: a dark jazzy escapade that is rich within bombastic symphonics.

Matías Bahamondes' saxophone skills certainly won me over here. In fact, the whole band is very skilled, which surprised me a ton since most of the members, to my knowledge, never played in any other band. Which just baffled me because this album feels like it was made by a group of people that at least had a few years under their belts, but no! These are newbies! Well, actually, one isn't, that being Rodrigo González Mera, as he was the drummer for the band Homínido. However, Homínido hadn't made any albums since 2016, so Chercán is his first project in almost a decade, so if anything he's practically playing it fresh.

Funny thing too, he was actually the guy who messaged me on RYM that asked me to review this record. So, hey, that's pretty cool.

But genuinely, this debut is amazing. It genuinely surprised me the first time I heard it, and it still surprises me now. It is just a genuinely wonderful record. The only thing that sort of holds it back, at least for me anyways, is that they sometimes can dip a bit too much into a sort of King Crimson-esque sound. Not to say there is anything wrong with pulling from one of the greats, but I think the intro to Kalimba feels just a bit too much like the beginning to Larks' Tongues In Aspic Pt. 1.

But minor nitpick aside, Chercán is certainly a band I will be on the look for in the coming years. If this is their debut, then who knows what their magna carta will be? Latin American prog will always be a guilty pleasure for me, so seeing it still going strong in this modern age of progressive rock music blesses my heart! Genuinely listen to this one, you won't leave disappointed.

Best tracks: La culpa, Caen las hojas blanca, Las mentiras del muro, Relato de una obsesión. Parte II: El orate

worst track: Desolación (En)

I like that we get four long tracks with the shortest being just under 10 minutes. This is very much either flute or organ led. So yes, DEEP PURPLE and JETHRO TULL came to mind often. I do not like the flute style as it dances all over the place, fluttering away. I love flute but not in that style. Same with the Hammond, I just have never been a big fan of organ led music like this. The guitarist hardly causes a blip here. The keyboardist adds vocals and they are okay, but often mixed low.

The cover art actually impresses me more than anything I hear. The flautist did this and he clearly has a talent. Such a detailed picture that I have to applaud. It's a little bigger than the cover too, as it expands to the back some. So right from the first spin I knew this would be a challenge. If it was just the flute, or just the organ, but it's both giving me problems. My favourite musician on here is easily the bass player George Papageorgiou. Just love his tone, and how upfront he is. A talent for sure.

I won't describe what I'm hearing here as I would be repeating myself a lot, but I feel this album will get a lot of Prog fans exited who are more into FOCUS and TULL than I am.

In some ways it is reminiscent of Øresund Space Collective and their approach to space rock, while the way the music is constructed and brought together is similar to the work undertaken by the late Robin Taylor, except in both cases this feels far more earthy and real with less emphasis on electric guitars and synthesisers. In some ways it feels like the clashing together of multiple worlds with RIO and free jazz on one hand, progressive rock and avant on another, all coming together in an album where one never knows what is going to happen next, and often that includes not only the listener but also those involved in the performance. There are nearly 30 musicians involved in this particular project, and while musically it does fit in well with the imagery conjured up by the album title and photos, it is also out of left field and quite different to what many in the genre are producing and is all the better for that. Overall this is a great piece of work which need to be played on headphones and really listened to, as this is an unusual and jagged piece of work which somehow is also rounded and surreal.

By 1970, McDonald had departed, and Fripp with Sinfield became the singular impetus at the core of King Crimson, yielding "In the Wake of Poseidon." Fripp assumed the duties at the mellotron, and new associate Mel Collins, flute and saxophone.

Michael Giles continued, in the interim, as percussionist with Greg Lake as "transitional" vocalist, leading to Gordon Haskell. Peter Giles supplied the bass guitar with the key acquisition of Keith Tippet at the piano and harpsichord.

Although a substantive album, "Poseidon" may be too much of a recapitulation of the form of "The Crimson King." "Lizard" expands and enriches this configuration. Now, we have, before "Supper's Ready," or "Close to the Edge," or "Thick as a Brick," the 20 plus minute piece, "Lizard." And, for all fans of Yes, there is a guest performance by Jon Anderson on the first segment of "Lizard," "Prince Rupert Awakes."

In fact, during the early seventies, something akin to a symbiotic relationship existed between Yes and King Crimson. Upon the dismissal of Peter Banks in April of 1970, "conventional wisdom" posits Anderson and Squire considered Robert Fripp as his replacement. (In terms of the "big picture," the choice of Steve Howe appears somewhat Providential, inextricably informing Yes' following efforts and enabling Fripp and Sinfield to continue King Crimson.) Of course, in July of 1972, following the reportedly arduous process of recording the album, "Close to the Edge," Bill Bruford left Yes for the upcoming incarnation of King Crimson.

Thus, in the autumn of 1970, King Crimson existed as a "studio band," pre-dating Becker and Fagen's Steely Dan by 4 or 5 years. "Bolero ? The Peacock's Tale" from the piece "Lizard" exemplifies jazz improvisation at a high level. Girded by Fripp's mellotron and Tippet's piano, Robin Miller, oboe and cor anglais, Mark Charig, cornet, Nick Evans, trombone, and Andy McCulloch, drums, flesh out all of the manifold colors of a peacock's tale.

Part of the riddle of "Lizard" is its communication of the concept of the Ouroboros, conveying a quest for individuation by Sinfield's chosen knight-errant, Prince Rupert. Although an historical figure of the seventeenth century, Prince Rupert, here, is the emblem of all questers, external and/or internal:

Wake your reason's hollow vote

Wear your blizzard season coat

Burn a bridge and burn a boat

Stake a Lizard by the throat.

In "staking a Lizard by the throat,"one completes the figurative circle that is the Ouroboros, the wholeness of the serpent with its tail in its mouth, a symbol that harks back to Ancient Egypt, alchemy, and the psychology of Carl Jung: "This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man." {p. 335, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"}

Lizard bones become the clay -

And there a Swan is born

One result of a quest could be described as the skeletal remains of the Ouroboros, becoming the basis upon which insight is born: a Swan.

The third part of "Lizard," "The Battle of Glass Tears," originating from research on teardrops the historical Prince Rupert introduced to King Charles II, is a prototype of what would become Yes' "The Gates of Delirium" in 1974.

Immediately preceding the "Big Top" ending of "Lizard" is a guitar and percussion solo by Fripp and McCulloch that evokes Steve Howe's solo in "Relayer's" "Sound Chaser." In the album, "Lizard," there is much musically and lyrically that foreshadows later progressive rock. In "Cirkus," Fripp and Sinfield "set the stage" for ELP's "Karn Evil 9:

Megaphonium fanfare.

In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster

Bid me join the parade...

"Indoor Games" is an effective nod to Frank Zappa; "Happy Family," commentary on the demise of the Beatles.

As we depart King Crimson's "Lizard," its mantle remains enigmatic. Unlike Becker and Fagen's Steely Dan, Fripp's King Crimson would return in a structured, arguably superior form with "Larks Tongues in Aspic" in 1973. Among its members would be the "eccentric" percussionist, Jamie Muir, source of the album's title.

In March of 1973, while attending Bill Bruford's wedding reception, Muir recommended Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi" to Jon Anderson. Yes' "Tales from Topographic Oceans" would ensue from Anderson's study of this work. In closing, Yogananda's title, "Paramahansa" is Sanskrit for "Great Swan." Once again, we remember that

Lizard bones become the clay -

And there a Swan is born

Exploding like the Chaiten volcano in the Southern Andes, "La Culpa" is a monstrous slap in the face, a hysterically magnificent torrent of Magma-esque fury (not necessarily the band but the molten fire) that settles into sudden introspection, where the fervent glow of Martin's voice soothes the scalding pyre of sound. But it's only a brief reprieve, as the bulldozer guitar barrage reignites into turbo charged vehemence. It's entirely the band's fault, tectonic and strategic as they are wanting to disturb, shock and perhaps even provoke. Martin screams as if the devil was chasing his tail.

Will our chilenos quiet down now, well it's hard to predict, as the speed at which they shuffle from vigor to smoothness on "Caen Las Hojas Blancas" is unpredictably dizzying, 'Frippo' Faundez manhandles his fretboard with impunity verging on hysteria, as if barking at Matias's brass reptile. Hints of experimental (mostly mental) King Crimson definitely come to mind, the Mel Collins-era in particular, the saxophone utterly devastating! I need to check my heart rate as I feel like a F1 engine overheating. Perhaps a week's rest in Vina del Mar might help. "Kalimba" kindly keeps the pace a tad more sedate but only a tease, for as soon as that nasty twitching guitar starts throttling up, the tempo increases once again, egged on by Martin's pleading vocals that exude pain, suffering and revolt. "Desolacion" is where the string trio settles the sorrow factor with a serene moment o reflection on the previous devastation.

It segues lovingly into "Tiempos Paralelos", a hauntingly gorgeous flutter of ornate calm, acoustic instruments galore, cymbals for percussion, delicate sax work and a slightly more subdued emerging bolero-like beat and scat singing that merge into a vortex of symphonic bliss that came as a complete revelation, closed off by a hazy revisit by the strings, bidding adios! Definitely a highlight track.

Plunging back into their signature percussive heavy style, "Las Mentiras del Muro " has the guitars and the drums working in tandem in whipping up a wall (muro) of dense authority, Simon's rubbery bass provides the much- needed foundation for a sax sortie on the softer side of reverie and melancholia. Chercan cannot help relapsing into boisterous flareups of unforeseen irrationality, as it's their trademark feature. Nothing here is remotely close to prog by numbers. Cohesive abstraction are perhaps better suited words to describe this whirlwind.

And to further the need to inflict unexpected joy on avid listeners worldwide, the two part 12 minute+ suite "Relato de Una Obsesion" naturally comes as an extension of their 'keep you on the edge' methodology . "Quimera" suggests a 6-minute journey into the vast and breathtaking expanses of the Atacama Desert, situated in Northern Chile, a plateau that is as arid as it is beautiful. The second section "El Orate" is where the harsh realities of such a desolate climate and topography can get the senses into a state of obsessive frenzy, where guitars, sax, bass, drums and vocals unite as one, in brazen defiance of any challenges nature wishes to impose. Incredible music.

The onus is now on a peaceful finale, all shimmering light and glittering "Colores", a hauntingly serene arrangement that defies all the previous norms established so forcefully up to this point. The acoustic instruments, the delicate strings and the percolating percussive elements, and a vocalist exuding emotional release all combine to finish of this extraordinarily unique recording.

The only comment I can possibly rely on as proof of the impact it had on me is that in a musical world that has assuredly played every note and combination of notes once or many times before, Chercan comes across as a rare bird in the progressive field. Yet, by all accounts, it's a rather common one in Chile, and allegedly very human- friendly. We are so blessed.

4.5 Andean aviaries.