PINTA TU ALDEA

It's no that I'm in two minds whenever I think about (or review) this album: it's just that two minds are required to properly understand Alas' second offering. The entry of new bassist Pedro Aznar helped to enhance the rhythm section's drive, as well as give a more dynamic dimension to main writer Moretto's vision: the fact that Aznar was versatile enough to add some extra performances on additional synth and flute proved revitalizing for the band as a unit. The opener 'A Quiénes Sino' has to be the best Alas track ever. It kicks off with a 3+minute intro motif massively based on floating synth layers, delicately adorned by dreamy trumpet and flute lines: the intro's end gives way to the main theme, which is a most splendid exercise on fusion-tinged melodic prog, in many ways similar to the sound achieved by Moraz during his Refugee days with a touch of M.I.A.'s aggressive side, if only a tad tougher: 'A Quiénes Sino' sounds like an ever-creative progressive machine that revolves around recurrent motifs fluidly and inventively. The 10 minute long namesake number brings a similar vibe to that exhibited in the debut album's first suite ('Buenos Aires es Solo Piedra'), translating the airs of jazz and the mood of tango into the language of prog, yet with an enhanced energy firmly related to the fire of the preceding track. The electric piano interlude brings a proper moment of introspectiveness, in this way, developing a clever contrast that affects positively the whole track. After this number, unfortunately, the first half ends, aborting the fulfillment of the golden promise that had been glimpsed at so far. The departure of drummer Riganti led to no replacement, which seems to indicate that Moretto and Aznar felt confident that the new material might work well without a percussive input. If that's the case, they were very, very wrong, indeed. Let's make it clear once and for all: the musical ideas comprised in 'La Caza del Mosquito' and 'Silencio de Aguas Profundas' are excellent, owning a most captivating vibe and portraying a peculiar elegance. The main problem is that the music seems to surpass the performers, as if these had no sort of control over them. It is a pity really, since the unexpected tricks and variations add an air of excitement to the main melodies, but the fact is that the lack of consistence is patent. More than an album, strictly speaking this is the sum of the halves of two different ones. The two tracks that fill second half should be mostly appreciated for bringing the listener pleasant ambiences of bossanova and tango, respectively, but they pretty much pale in comparison with the mini-epics that occupied the first half. All my aforementioned reservations notwithstanding, "Pinta Tu Aldea" deserves a positive rating at the end of the day: 3 ½ stars for a very good album that could and should have been excellent,... or even more than that.

Alas from Argentina

Well i don´t know why i hadn´t reviewed this album before, since i had already written my review for their first album and their compillation one, actually i was pretty sure that i had done it before, but now that i visited this album´s page noticed that i was wrong, so it´s time to do it.

This is another one exquisite band from Argentina which released only 2 albums, the first one being released in 1976 as a eponymous album and featuring 3 members ala ELP, the musical orientation of that album was more bombastic very reminiscent to ELP indeed, and with the fusion touch ala Return to Forever, that was a great debut album, but later the former bass/guitar player Alex Zucker left the band, he was replaced by a very talented musician, Pedro Aznar. So they worked and made compositions and in 1978 released what later would be their last album, "Pinta tu Aldea" which fortunately was another great album, but with a different style, this time the bombastic ELP-is music disappeared and instead, they focused in giving a very traditional style, Tango, and imagine the combination of a magnific jazz/fusion album with the exquisite and unique sound of Tango, it makes this album very peculiar and great.

A pleasant 40-minute listening will be found here, featuring 4 great songs with 10 minutes average each one, just another proof that prog in Argentina was really amazing in the 70s, so please have a listen to these kind of bands, not only from Argentina but from South-America, there are really a lot of gems.

Pinta tu Aldea kicks off with a magnific track called "A Quienes Si No" which has 10 very worth listening minutes with a fantastic intro which leads to the keyboard playing in a Focus or ELP style in a moderate way, then it turns into their fusion style making a fantastic harmony between the musicians, great keyboard playing above all. "Pinta tu Aldea" the title track is the first one which shows the different and original style featuring that Argentinian Tango sound,, what a perfect combination between Jazz and Tango, here the bass playing is magnific as well as the bandoneon (instrument used for Tango purposes) and with a unique sound, there is a passage on this song when it is slow and with a classical touch, then it returns again to the tango-fusion style, great song!

"La Casa del Mosquito" is the shortest song, and it has another extra instrument which is the flute, this time appearing since the very beginning of the song with a delicate sound accompanied by a soft piano, then the song becomes a bit faster and powerful where we can hear a magnific acoustic guitar here and there, the flute still sounding and the song is probably the jazziest of them all, a proof of the different directiopn of the album is clearly listenable here. "Silencio de Aguas Profundas" is the one which finishes this great album, this song again features both the flute and the bandoneon, probaly this is the most ambitious of them all where they tried to show that the could do anything they wanted to, not my favorite song of the album but still good, it feels like if i were in a restaurant having a nice meal and listening to a soft jazz- tango song.

Different from their first effort, but again good and worth listening, 4 stars , recommendable to anyone.

The Buenos Aires KB trio Alas' second album was released in the early fall of 79 (says the booklet), though some sources have dated it (erroneously) from 83, included in the very same booklet's liner notes. It was already quite rare as a vinyl release, but it never received a stand-alone CD version either. The only way (to my knowledge anyway) to acquire it legally is through the 2on1 EMI- Archivos package of 2001. By 79, the trio had been faced with their only change of musician: bassist Pedro Aznar had taken over the four-stringer and he was also toying with synths, since leader Moretto was sometimes busy with the bandoneon (the local tango accordion). One of the most notable differences, compared to their debut album, was the shift to a much jazzier and instrumental form of progressive rock.

Opening on the long synth layers (courtesy of newcomer Aznar) of the 10-mins Quienes Sino, later joined by Moretto's flute and Riganti's delicate bell percussions, the piece finally kicks in after three minutes in a jazzy-prog-fusion that was well in line with the late 70's, but without the questionable late-70's kitsch synths sound, so widely used in the northern hemisphere. The following 10-mins title-track opens on a jazzy bass and features a not-too- annoying accordion, thus sending the mood in semi-tango-esque territory, but we're nowhere close to Argentinian folk stuff either, because the Rhodes gives it its typical 70's flavour.

Over the flipside, the album shortest track (still over 7-mins) Caza Del Mosquito opens very melancholously (is that even a word? ;o)), but soon jumps into a quirky world of happy but frenetic air dance executed by that pesky flying bug that avoids being squashed buy the vengeful humans. A fun track, where the piano, the funky bass (ala Pastorius) and a twirly flute all alternate at the forefront. The album-closing 13-ins+ Silencio De Aguas Profundas (deepwaters' silence) opens on flute and Rhodes interplay, before the accordion takes over languorously (now THAT is a word! ;o)). A bit later on, we even get some guitar laced in with Moretto's piano and then some strange synth passage that would sound like a cheap Tomita. The album ends on a bring late-night bandoneon solo.

A very different kind of album from what Alas had done before, Pinta is still a very interesting album that deserves investigations, though maybe not exactly by the same prog crowds, but it will remain accessible by most, even by yours truly, who generally not a fan (to say the least) of the accordion. I personally prefer their first album, but this one is such a different beast that one could have a hard time guessing it was the same band on both albums.

Argentina's prog and fusion output continues to impress me. From the confident symphonics of Espiritu to the mystical delights of Bubu's 1978 landmark Anabelas, the Argentines seem just a cut above their South American neighbors when it comes to blending the western world's musics. A stronger musical history? A more refined sense of the craft of art? Maybe, though you wouldn't know it from Gustavo Moretto's suspended synthesizers that pull open 'A Quiénes Sino'. But at just past the three-minute mark a glorious organ vamp begins battle with the high-fretted bass of Pedro Aznar and Carlos Riganti's snappy tinfoil drums, morphing into a serious bop peppered by Moretto's ivories with a tight-but-loose power.

'Pinta tu Aldea' treats us to the rich low vibrations of Dan Binelli's bandoneon, incorporating tango ~ or Nuevo Tango ~ evoking Piazzolla and introducing sounds to progrock that, when recorded in '77, were fairly new. Unusual time sigs and stop-&-start tempos for the boggling 'La Caza del Mosquito', a successful conjoining of tech-fusion with old traditions featuring Cecilia Tanconi's airy wood flute, and complex refrain 'Silencio de Aguas Profundas' closes this sophisticated show.

These guys found a way to sound thoroughly modern for 1977 and yet allowed their bountiful heritage to remain prominent in the arrangements. Pinta tu Aldea surprised me around almost every corner. Gorgeous stuff.

I've always maintained that Argentina was (and still is) one of the world's hotbeds of creative prog rock nirvana. With Bubu, Arco Iris, and Crucis, among countless others, who could leave any of their English contemporaries in their wake, the 70's Argentine scene is matched in quality by only a select few other scenes around the world. And one of my personal favourite gems that was spawned from this movement is Alas' second effort, "Pinta Tu Aldea", a splendid all-instrumental affair of prog-fusion perfection.

Alas makes a bold statement the very first second after the needle drops. Layers of spacey synthesizers create a tense, brooding atmosphere, like an enshrouding fog, becoming increasingly thicker, taking the listener somewhere far off. Cecilia Tenconi (of Bubu fame) offers brilliant flute lines that heighten the tension, transporting the song into a chaotic, even satanic, direction. The interplay between her and Pedro Aznar, the man behind the ivories, is sensational, weaving together a formidable tapestry of sound. Move over, "Watcher of the Skies": this is THE keyboard intro to end all keyboard intros! But after several minutes of mood-building, out of the mist and wreckage comes a valiant, triumphant organ line, which builds into a lively fusion jam to fill the remainder of the song.

Indeed, gone are the days of bombastic symphonic ELP- clonery that Alas had dabbled into on their self-titled debut. This is a different Alas we're getting into. To quote Pedro Aznar, "...what Genesis and Emerson could not touch, even with all their technical elements, they could not touch because they've never known, haven't sucked in, the sound of Buenos Aires. It was there that lay the key difference between Alas and the English Emerson, Lake & Palmer: the urban sound of Buenos Aires and the search for the rhythms that Buenos Aires has." (translated from original Spanish; quote courtesy of Cabeza De Moog). There's no doubt that this album has, amidst its odd spacey touches, a more urban vibe and a more intimate, emotional feel than the debut, coming as a consequence of its jazzier focus.

Following the dynamic closing of "A Quienes Sino", the album's title track picks up right where the last one left off. A more uptempo number, "Pinta Tu Aldea" is a technical showcase of all involved in the band, including a guest appearance of the accordion-like bandoneon, which features prominently. Not that it steals the show, of course; the bass lines are impeccably played and even the slower, more open-styled keyboard interlude in the middle still manages to keep things interesting, even if the energy level dips down a little. In fact, the more lounge-y style of the keyboard solo reveals just how deep of a sound these guys had with such limited recording technology back in late 70's Buenos Aires. if you listen closely you can faintly hear Gustavo Moretto complementing the keys on his trumpet. In all, side one consists of two powerhouse tracks, which more than make up for any potential complaints that one may have had with their first album.

Side two packs just as much excitement as the first one, with the rhythmic hustle-and-bustle of "La Caza Del Mosquito". Aznar's guitar lines in here interweave so well with the flute parts; this track is just so infectiously lovable. After a lot of stopping and starting, with strong dynamic contrasts to boot, it finally gives way to the softness of the album's closer, "Silencio de Aguas Profundas". With no percussion to be heard for the last 13 minutes, the final song's slowly developing smooth lounge jazz and tango-esque qualities offer a symmetry of sorts to the album, fading off in much the same way it faded in.

"Pinta Tu Aldea" is really quite an overlooked piece of the South American prog canon. I'm struggling to pin down a rating between 4 and 5 stars for this one. On one hand, it isn't necessarily an "essential" buy, but it really is flawless. I can't think of a wasted second on the whole album. As such, I'll leave it with only 4 stars but I won't be able to stress enough just how highly I'd recommend it to fusion lovers and anyone who wants to explore prog from outside of Europe.

Check this one out!