LEYENDA

Jampa already discussed the context of the album and went into the detail with the songs. I won't analyze the songs too much, since the record has only one song not available in the studio albums, which is "Con Tus Manos". This is a song that I don't play too often, since I dislike the guitars, the brass and specially the vocals and find them annoying. Ok, the instrumental parts are interesting, but they aren't not long enough to overshadow the sung parts

I have the 15 songs version, which I don't feel is ruined by the addition of the extra songs. In fact, you get "Centroamerica" and "Espíritu del Duende" which are masterpieces. The other three extra songs (Fiesta Privada, Toca Viejo, and De La Noche A La Mañana) are also good, but not of special interest to the prog fan.

Ok, on to the remakes. In general, I'm not buying the idea of recording symphonic songs and giving them an "alternative rock" twist, specially because the violinist (Jack Schuster) is gone and the drummer, Lenin, plays as a rock drummer when the songs had melodic playing (courtesy of Orlando Aguilar) in their original form. Nonetheless, I must admit that the new sound works very well for "Aquí Esta tu Tierra", which is played a bit faster and overall feels better with a more developed vocal style by Álvaro. "Dime Que Has Olvidado" has pretty much the same improvements made in "Aquí está tu Tierra": faster tempo, better vocals and different instrumentation. I used to like the remake version of "Dime que has olvidado" better than the original, but right now I'm liking more the older one. "Hombres de Maíz" isn't better or worse than the original, it's just different. I guess the alternative sound also works here. Violin is sorely missing, but we're greeted with some double-bass parts that spark the interest of the listener. Plus, now we have the flute parts, which were added for the remake.

The failure comes in both "La Fábula del Grillo Y El Mar" and "Conquista". They actually butchered the songs. The first one is nothing without the violin. The improvement on the singing doesn't redeem the song. The sound effects that were part of the essence of the original are gone or badly substituted. Also, they try to fill the string parts with a string pad.... yuck. The intro of "Conquista" was basic to the song, and they removed it! It has an awful guitar tone and disgusting, almost vomitive synth parts. The tempo is too fast, almost rushed. Something that I didn't point out in my review of the original version is that it had two drummers playing at the same time. In some parts, this was also essential. And now it's gone... Ok, jejeje, maybe I'm overreacting, musicians are allowed to make mistakes, but I'll avoid listening to this one!

Honestly, I never noticed anything different in "Libre Sentimiento" but now I stand corrected by Jampa. You always learn something new every day!

Pretty much everyone who didn't follow Alux in the 80's, discovered Alux through this album. I was one of them and many people continue to do so. It's probably the easiest to find album by Alux Nahual, so it's a good starting point. But remember, if you're in it for the prog, go find their studio albums, because you're missing their proggiest compositions. If you're a music fan in general this is a must!

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