MÁQUINA!

After officially forming MÁQUINA! in 1968, it would take two years for the band to find enough stability to record an album and even then Jordi Bastiste was called to duty in the middle of recording the album! The band's first album WHY? came out in 1970 and as a result of all the members coming and going found various musicians playing on certain tracks even though the album only featured four tracks, two of which were basically different improvisations built around the title track that swallowed up most of the album's playing time. Thinking more internationally than local, MÁQUINA! sang all their lyrics in English unlike the majority of Catalonian bands that favored the local Catalan folk flavored nova cançó. While the band's ambitions were against the grain, MÁQUINA! found support from Ángel Fábregas and his label Als 4 Vents and were allowed to work in exchange for recording privileges and promotion.

The band started out with a couple pop oriented singles in a 60s psychedelic rock style in 1969 and surprisingly found that the first single "Lands Of Perfection / Let's Get Smashed" sold well over 10,000 copies and was well received by critics. This allowed a little more leeway when it came time to record the band's first album WHY? which was released the following year in the summer of 1970. While bookended by the opening "I Believe" and ending "Le Me Be Born" which are short catchy psychedelic rock numbers that deliver the same effect as a pop single, the majority of the album featured a lengthy jamming session of the title track split into two parts. While the track begins in the same sort of funky acid rock style that the other two shorter tracks deliver, the track continues on into nearly 25 minutes of improvisational variations on the basic melodic theme presented at the beginning and unleashing extremely volatile moments of acid rock as well as off the wall avant-garde excursions into wild formless freak outs that wouldn't sound out of place on some of the Krautrock scene's wilder moments.

Of course during that 25 minutes the band also exercised intricate time signature deviations and unthinkable (for Spain) adventurous experimentalism that became a huge hit on the live circuit. The band is notable for playing at the Salón Iris on February 22, 1970 in Barcelona and is cited to be the time and place where progressive rock was born in Spain. This set off a chain reaction and although Spain was hampered by the Franco government to rush into the prog thing like the rest of Europe, the band was certainly ground zero for all the other bands in the nation to follow suit. Unfortunately the band experienced a very unusual set of circumstances with Enric Herrera leaving the band and starting another brass rock band with the very same band name! This undoubtedly confused the public and led to lawsuits and hostility. The results ended up being that both versions of the band would disintegrate in 1972 leaving MÁQUINA! as a one album band although throughout its short career it did release six singles.

For anyone familiar with Spanish prog bands, MÁQUINA! left no clues that it emerged from Spain at all. No traces of local folk flavors, no homegrown languages on board and the style of prog played was more akin to the British scene along with percussive jamming sessions that were closer to the American Santana than anything European. An oddball of an album that sounds pretty tame at first but slowly and incrementally transmogrifies into a beast of the avant-garde with the ending part of the first part of the title track and the majority of the second part taking you on a wild unhinged musical journey. Never mind the lame album cover art! This is fascinating early Spanish prog album that will please fans of crazy prog that features both melodic hooks and unhinged deviations into the freak-a-zoid zone.

"I Believe" is a fuzz-filled waltz, featuring more of the wonderful flavors of popular music at this time; the warmth of the bass here... Lovely. And then, around the midpoint, Hammond organ enters, lightly changing in tone, only becoming slightly harsh as the guitar, as seen for the whole track, continues to solo most bluesily. Next, to already wrap up our first side, is part 1 to our title track, "Why?"; our first taste of bassist Jordi Batiste on vocals, they're also responsible for the wonderful, conceptual artwork for the album. His voice (with English lyrics, by the way) is honestly so high in register and soft in delivery, I was at first convinced he was a lady; I'm into it, genuinely. This is a very of-the-time groovin' number, the drums from Josep María Vilaseca being especially choice to my ears. Approaching minute 8 is this crunchy, fuzzed-out wah-guitar (Lluis Cabanach), married (simultaneously) to another would-be guitar solo (Josep Maria Paris). I would classify this jam compositionally as fairly standard Psych-Blues-Rock; progressive, of course, in its exploratory, extended length. As we approach its partial close, the drums are once again on display, Vilaseca getting his own solo; a fine solo it is, in my opinion. Altogether, great Proto-Progging here and now.

Flipping over to Side 2, we get "Why[?] (Continuacio)". Without a hitch, we're picking up, it feels, from where we left off from its first part. Instead of a traditional starting-out, we begin with said psychedelic jam. I don't know why, but I already dig it significantly enough more. After minute 2, we get this long crescendo, with shimmering organ underneath pulsing drums and wriggling lead guitar; that's right, ladies and gentlemen(!), it's Adjectives Time! This crescendo falls away to nothingness, essentially, the organ playing a bluesy, neo-classical arpeggio. As this shifts eventually to a single, pedaled chord, the rest of the band flips their proverbial wig. What follows is very memorable, the band shifting chromatically and darkly from chord to chord. I think this is a much more interesting jam than the one in the last half+ of regular old "Why?", and one I would recommend checking out in the least. Finishing out for its final minute or so, we get the return of vocals, and in a likewise much more welcome fashion, too. Finally, as for original album tracks, "(Continuacio)" is followed by "Let Me Be Born", twice featuring a sample, I assume, of Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock". Batiste's vocals enter in, via the tin can he showed up in, while the band is down low with minimal oddball percussion and a cool yet simple bass. We're back into the groove then, and we also get some lovely close Psych-Pop-ready vocal harmonies. Batiste likewise performs a solo on recorder! Delightful, honestly. With the sample alone, it was interesting, but to me this track really has it going on.

Included in this version are two singles from '69, first of all "Earth's Daughter", a David Bowie-style orchestral / Traditional Pop song (maybe at times a la Scott Walker) (at rarer times maybe Harry Nilsson). Nice melodies--likewise overtly Bowiesque--and overall a nice song for the nearing end to the Psychedelic Era. Lastly is "Look Away Our Happiness", a live rendition of a song which immediately brought early Bee Gees to my mind. And then... as verse falls away, we have this insane avant-garde noisefest. What then follows is expectedly groovy and cool, some absolutely stellar Jazz-Rock! Honestly, this would have killed on the album originally, but blessed are we to hear it tethered thus; to fellow fans of early Jazz-Rock and Fusion, genuinely a near-essential.

True Rate: 3.75/5.00

Maquina! were one of the very first pioneers of progressive music in Spain, their 1970 album Why? is considered a classic by many (in the Proto-Prog sub-genre). After Why? the band broke up due to discrepancies in the musical direction and because some members had to leave for the then-compulsory military service. Keyboardist Enric Herrera rescued the project but took a rather different direction, focusing on blues-jazz-rock with a distinctive presence of horns (trumpet and sax). He recruited the trio from the band Crac (Carles Benavent on bass, Emili Baleriola on guitars and Salvador Font on drums) and two German musicians who had established in Barcelona Peter Rohr on sax and Hubert Grilleberger on trumpet.

Herrera's idea was to record a double LP in the studio but he could not find the required funding so eventually they settled for recording live in concert, with rather limited resources, which was cheaper. Finally the recording was taken in 2 concerts in Barcelona on 7 and 8 July 1972, in which Mk I singer and bassist Jordi Batiste joined although only as vocalist and with limited presence since most of the music is instrumental. Incidentally this was the first live double LP ever produced in Spain.

The music is not Prog Rock, it's late 60's- early 70's blues-jazz-rock, often fast-paced and with some subtleties making it more proggy, with lots of Hammond solos, guitar solos and horn-driven melodies. Think early Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin with horns, and often with a more funky-groovy mood. We have a good bass solo in 'Chains' (Benavent would go on to become the most valued jazz-rock bassists in Spain) and a very good drum solo in 'Sonata', the most Prog-sounding song in the album.

The opener is the jazz standard 'Cold Duck Time' by Eddie Harries, which for some reason was renamed 'Could That Time'. The rest are new original compositions, not included in their studio album Why?, except for 'Blues In F' which is a traditional blues and an extended version of their 1969 single 'Look Away Our Happiness'. So it is one of those live albums of original material rather than playing live songs already released in studio albums.

The last track 'I Can Only Fly But Very Well' had been recorded in the studio before the concerts and was added to complete the 2-LP album running time. It fades out much too quickly though, leaving you wondering why did they add it.

If you like Hammond and guitar solos on bluesy backgrounds, and appreciate good trumpet and sax input in the melodies and solos, you will surely enjoy this one. If you look for highly complex or symphonic-eclectic Prog, forget about this album.

I have often seen Maquina!'s Why? described as "one of the best rock albums ever made in Spain". Well, that's an opinion I certainly do not share for what concerns the quality of the music as such, but what is true is that this was an album of great historical significance, in spanish rock there would be a "before Why?" and an "after Why?".

Spain was still under the dictatorship of Franco (until late 1975) and everything which looked or sounded too modern or libertarian was censored, so all the true aspects of rock came late and watered down. Sure enough there was some late 60's beat and psychedelia, but it was a carefully sanitized version of the real thing, with all the guys / girls looking nice and tidy, the songs still kept short, not too wild and with innocuous lyrics. Maquina! from Barcelona in the region of Catalunya were the first band to portray a genuine free and hippy attitude, with really long hair, long instrumental jams and non-commercial stance (in parallel Smash would do the same in the southern region of Andalucia). They achieved this partly by singing in english and by avoiding any political connotations in their lyrics. The term Prog was not yet used and this music became known in Spain as "Underground".

The music is proto-prog, influenced by the likes of Iron Butterfly, Rare Earth, Brian Auger, Hendrix etc, with a trippy rhythm section filled up with fuzz guitar and Hammond.

The opener I Believe became quickly popular by its distinctive ¾ beat, still not very widespread in those times. The title track Why? accounts for nearly 25 minutes which in those times in Spain was unheard of, and it was splitted in the 2 sides of the LP, the first part of 12 min in side A being the main song theme and the 13 min in side B being mainly an instrumental jam with a reprise of the song theme in the end. Really something special for Spain in those times. The last song on the LP was Let Me Be Born, something more like a Beatles song.

In the CD edition there are 2 bonus tracks, Earth's Daughter and Look Away Our Happiness, originally released as a single in 1969, the first one very much influenced by The Beatles and the latter more similar to a Brian Auger fast-rhythm soul track.

Regarding the cover art with the clock stuck on a croissant, it has been frequently interpreted as a methapor "calling Spain to wake up from the Franco dictatorial regime" but its author bassist Jordi Batiste explained in an interview that it was not so intentional, he just wanted to do something in the style of Dali, he took some croissants he bought from the bakery and started playing with them, pinched them with screwdrivers, electric switches etc until he came up with the clock. The popular interpretation was nice but reality was more mundane.

Their next release "En Directo" would be quite different due to line-up changes, more jazz- rock-soul oriented and with much more brass.

In summary, recommended for fans of proto-prog or those curious for the development of prog in Spain, but far from essential in my personal book.

Máquina! didn't use the Spanish or Catalan language to do their album; all the songs are in English. I think that thing is because Máquina! wanted to be more "European" and to make a different music, nearer to the progressive underground than the sixties pop.

The fantastic cover was an idea of Jordi Batiste and it seems it's a calling to "wake up" in Spain. Why? is, musically, excellent, but I think the songs 5 and 6 are more pop than progressive rock. The rest of the album is excellent. Moreover, both "Why?" and "Why? (continuació)" make Máquina! a "Spanish Soft Machine".

Four stars; it would be five, but the song number 5 and 6 are clearly inferior.

Just as laden with energy as their debut album, this double vinyl is however quite different developing a more bluesy, funky, brassier sound not far away from Chicago Transit Authority's debut album but also maybe the funky War combo (remember them with Eric Burdon). The Hammond organ is still the centre of the band and one can feel that Herrera is maybe the main ingredient behind this machine! ;-) Tracks like the lenghty Chains (used a bit as a showcase for the musos to display their aptitude at their respective instruments) or heavy blues Time Is Over are major fun and have a real impressive sound (given what was probably amateurish conditions of then-Spain) and the other great blues (In F) track is full of solos that most fans love to die for. A superb, adapted and extended rendition of their first single Look Away Our Happiness is another great moment. The lenghty track called Sonata is definitely deceiving but in name only as it yet again another scoarcher that could be on any of the first five Chicago albums.

Not quite essential for the proghead, this is nevertheless a great album, which should please all 70's music lovers. Whatever happened to these guys after this is still a mystery to this writer.

Stylistically, we are dealing with a psych/prog rock with extended and excellent interplay, somewhere in between live Cream (with KBs) and early Floyd or even a live Grateful Dead. The twin guitars are one of the features but one of them played bass when the bassist was busy with the flute or singing. The opening track is simply a superb atmospheric instrumental with organ-piano KB attack doubled by a superb and orgasmic guitar, a pure delight! Then comes the 25 min title track (broken over the two sides of the vinyl) with superb organs, twin guitar attack and rather enjoyable but muffled-in vocals, the whole thing going on an not too extended jam and evolving to one of the more entertaining drum solo I have ever been given to listen - maybe because it is not a pure solo as the KB outlines a few phase here and there. The second part of Why? opens the second side of the vinyl and picks up where the first part had left: a superb mostly instrumental enthusiastic prog-tinged rock jam. Quite enjoyable, especially when discovering this in 05, some 35 years after it was recorded. There are some particularly exhilarating moments in this track! The last track is yet another great tune

The two bonus tracks are the afore-mentioned single tracks and although a bit different than the album (especially in the vocal dept but the Earth's Daughter track sounds like some David Bowie spin-off), they do not interfere in the continuous ambiance of the album and they add to the album's incredibly short duration. This album is a relative minor gem for progheads but is a 24-carat nugget for the psych-jam group fans!! Impressive, although I must be careful in not over- rating it!! But I think rounding it up to the upper star is not insulting the album or the proghead.