ALTER HUEVO

When you see a band naming themselves CUCAMONGA you have to assume they are Zappa fans, and yes that is the connection here. There was a compilation album by Zappa, released in 1991 called "Cucamonga Years 1962-1964" which was his Doo-Wop period. There's none of that Doo-Wop stuff here thankfully but plenty of Zappa moments. They were also huge fans of Brazilian artist Hermeto Pascoal, an avant jazz musician. And the Bio here states that their approach is similar to SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA. So yes we get some zany and humerous music here.

This is all instrumental but for some spoken word stuff and laughter. They were from Argentina and are a five piece of bass, drums, keys, sax and guitar. We also get marimba, vibes, accordion from this five piece plus a guest adding clarinet and bass clarinet. This is a 40 minute album over eight tracks, released in 2012, and this is the last we have heard from them. The cover art was done by Paolo Botta from YUGEN, with the Altrock label being the connection there.

While I'm not 100% into the music here, I mean circus-like melodies do little for me, plus any sort of zany music but this won me over in spades. Actually it starts off in that style but by 1 1/2 minutes into that opening almost 9 minute track I was actually excited by what I was hearing. Love the guitar and sax, plus I did not expect this opener to turn dark and atmospheric. Some crazed laughter ends that opener called "Tetascotch".

The six minute fourth track with the long title stays fairly sparse before turning dark before 4 minutes. Some power follows before we get this cool sounding ending of atmosphere and intensity. Spoken words follow. The second half is as good as the first half but check out that 6 minute closer called "Cletalanda" where they end this album in style. Love the bass and vibes on this one. This song was used on a various artists compilation, so you know it's good, maybe their best song on here.

A very good album that Zappa fans should really enjoy along with many avant jazz fans.