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Arco Iris - Arco Iris CD (album) cover

ARCO IRIS

Arco Iris

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.74 | 45 ratings

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BrufordFreak
4 stars My first exposure to the music of this highly-acclaimed band from Argentina! I'm excited as I love the inextricably entwined infusion of Latin and indigenous folk traditions poured into South American musics.

1. "Quiero Llegar" (3:51) using a bossa nova/"Take Five" rhythm pattern and palette foundation, some quite lovely folk vocals give it a SERGIO MENDES & BRASIL '66 kind of feel, but then at 1:45 the music takes a turn into a more rock and surfer-rock form for an extended instrumental passage. The first minute of the instrumental passage is early-60s sounding while the final minute takes on more of a DOORS sound and feel with the introduction of a rock electric guitar to deliver a rather aggressive solo. The delicately delivered vocals alone are worth numerous repeats. (9/10)

2. "Hoy Te Miré" (2:21) almost pure folk music with its all-acoustic instrumental palette (simply-strummed acoustic guitar, bass, vocals and background vocals). At 0:58 there is a sudden speed up with an electric lead guitar, but these instances are very brief and only happen twice and are followed by a return to the delicate folk music of the opening only with a zither-like instrument replacing the strummed acoustic guitar (citarina?) (8.875/10)

3. "Camino" (3:57) Prog Folk of a rock nature that turns blues rock with the instrumental final minute. I'm a sucker for these indigenous clay flutes used in South American music. A surprisingly well-composed and rendered song. (8.875/10)

4. "Coral" (1:16) an interesting blending of church/monastic choir vocals with ethnic/indigenous traditions. (4.375/5)

5. "Te Quiero, Te Espero" (2:36) delicately picked electric guitar chords with perfectly-matched electric bass support the delicate harmonized folk vocals of Gustavo and mates. Great, heart-wrenching melodies and harmonies. Reminds me of the power of Tracey Thorne's early solo music. Piano enters at the end to carry the melody home. (9.125/10)

6. "Luli" (0:41) Dana's operatic vocal is a little more warbly with her vibrato than I'm comfortable with. (4.25/5)

7. "Canción De Cuna Para El Niño Astronauta" (4:02) great soundscape created by classical guitar, saxes, and heavily- reverbed "room" of drums, electric bass, electric guitar and one extraordinary lead vocalist. (Still Gustavo?) A song that could have fit in perfectly with the psychedelic rock wave hitting San Francisco in the late 1960s. Awesome. (9.75/10)

8. "Y Una Flor (El Pastito)" (1:57) delicate anachronistic acoustic folk instruments like harp and recorders help found a folk sound for a song that is more folk or liturgical than prog but still excellent and impressive. (4.5/5)

9. "Tiempo" (5:42) sax and rock band instrumentation (heavy electric bass) set up a blues rock flow over which Gustavo sings with a fire and aggressiveness that he doesn't use much on the rest of the album. At 1:30 the music shifts into a little more rock-oriented blues-rock for a brief passage before settling into a full-on psych rock/R&B passage with lots of free-form additions to the music--including wild purcussion and vocal sounds and some proficient wah-wah guitar soloing--all delivered over a very solid and groovy bass and drum rhythm pattern. Nice! Then there are a couple more odd shifts that let me know that this song is really a suite--the final passage being piano and flute delivering a pastoral finish. (8.875/10)

10. "Y Ahora Soy" (11:59) opening with an ominous bass arpeggio that is repeated over and over as it is joined by electric guitar, saxophone and theater/orchestra-like drums. At the one-minute mark the band switches gears to introduce a more jazzy palette and motif over which saxophonist Ara Tokatlian lays down his "vocal" melody for about 90 seconds. Then there is another stop and pause before the citarina and clay flute enter to introduce a more ethnically-traditional theme, but this lasts only about a minute before Gustavo and the rock band rejoin to present some awesome blues-rock music in which vocals, sax, and wah-wah-ed electric guitar take turns playing off one another. A sudden stop and pause at 5:27 seems to want to last, but then everybody comes back in full volume to continue the exposition of the same blues-rock motif--both the heavy and more-plaintive side of it (chorus and verse, respectively). At 7:20 another stop and pause clears the palette for entrance of a Latinized instrumental passage (that sounds like "Tequila") over which Ara saxophone and an interesting variety of percussion instruments weave and solo. At 9:30 that lead instrument becomes a distorted electric guitar. Not anything mind-blowing in terms of ground- breaking or musicianship, this is merely an interesting "first" epic. (21/25)

Total time 38:22

The vocal skills and sensibilities exhibited by these artists are definitely advanced: they all carry their tunes with near- perfect pitch, perfect harmonies, perfect inflection and pronunciation, and perfect dynamics; the vocals alone make this a wonderfully enjoyable listening experience. The infusion throughout this album of more ethnic instruments, melodies, and vocal stylings that are more traditional to South American cultures is something that adds tremendously to its inherent charm.

B/four stars; a very solid and eminently enjoyable debut album from these talented and adventurous musicians. I am left feeling quite excited to continue to move forward chronologically in my exploration of Arco Iris' discography!

BrufordFreak | 4/5 |

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