LA MÁQUINA DE HACER PÁJAROS

Charly García had just decided to dissolve Sui Generis, the folk-pop band (with subtle art rock pretensions) that he had led for four years, after seeing Crucis perform on stage - he felt immediately that he neede a change of musical direction for his career, so he steered his eyes into the prospect of playing prog rock. After recruiting bassist José Luis Fernández (of Crucis' original line-up), Oscar Moro (hired drummer for SG), a second keyboardist with much experience in the hard rock field named Carlos Cutaia, and finally, young talented guitarist Gustavo Bazterrica, the first Argentinian prog band with two keyboardist was born: La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros (The Bird Making Machine). This image of flying living beings portrays very well the free spirit incarnated in the band's repertoire. Their major influences are Genesis, 73-75 Pink Floyd, Yes, RtF, always leaving some space for some folkish excursions (tracks 2 and 6) - but the prog material is predominant and more relevant. Both their jazz-rock oriented numbers ('Boletos, Pases y Abonos', 'No Puedo Verme Más') and their symphonic ones (the eerie opening title 'Bubulina','Rock',the amazing 11-minute closure 'Ah Te Ví Entre las Luces') exhibit a sense of enthusiastic energy and genuine freedom: Bazterrica's soloing can be fiery, subtle or ellegantly texturial, thanks to his skill and versatility; Moro's jazzy drive makes his drumming function as solid anchor against which his fellow members can sustain their performances, complemented by Fernandez's precision; the dual keyboards allow García and Cutaia build walls of organ-and- synth simultaneously, or while one of them is soloing. In a few words, the instrumental ensemble is well constituted by effective individual pieces. What about the compositions? They're great and with some degree of catchiness in them: IMHO, the most accomplished are tracks 3, 4 and 7. Though my fav album from LMDHP is their following one, this debut would certainly make "an excellent addition to any prog rock collection".