PAPALLONES I ELEFANTS

Just about sums it up really. This album consists of two different halves, one of them being just a teeny tiny bit more interesting than the other - at least to this reviewer, -and putting images of either pachyderms or daytime moths on this kind of music is rather easy. Natural like skiing.

This sole album from Spanish group Metamorfosis is one of those brilliant little gems that simply defies the actual time-frame of its birth. Luckily so one might add. A lot of albums from 1982, incidentally the year of my own birth - were marred by the production tendencies of the time. Not this one though, and maybe apart from the occasional atmospheric synths here and there - it sounds like a record from 1977.

Getting back to the two sides of this album. One of them is the electric side, that boasts some seriously mouthwatering synthesizers, ethereal drum work, larger than life guitar sculptures and a walking clean bass bobbing away underneath it all - all of this together creating some magnificent symphonic musical sections. These are by far my favourite thing about this album. And while Papallones I Elefants never really gets unmelodious - these symphonic sprees do overflow in some kind of natural melody lines that put the rest of this album to shame. Think mid period Genesis or maybe Grobschnitt, and you're not that far off. This is guitar country and often it'll be duetting with itself - birdlike - twittering clean and crisp in the morning air. As I mentioned before these symphonic grandiose sections are beautiful and damn near to die for.

Then you have the other part of this recording, which is the more acoustic side of it. Still the bass remains electric as does the guitar, but this time around it sticks to muffled rhythmic splashes and more earth toned traditional jazz patterns. The synths trade in for their older brother the piano. It feels like some sort of late night jazz club sound this emanates - like the music you'll hear in one of those old school food programmes: "Then we pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes or so - and just wait..." I know, I'm not making any sense - as usual, but then again this is music.

There are moments on here that successfully manage to splice up these different trades - piles them together to form this heavy, docile staccato, jazzy and slightly effervescent thing - just like the second track called Un Joc Als Cinc Ans, which to me sounds like a somewhat symphonic jazzy excursion to the northern parts of Egypt. S'got that special melodic slightly skewed phrasing that truly reminds me of those sand coloured parts of the pyramid country.

If you enjoy melody to go with your fusion, and moreover want something that treads lightly like the butterfly - y'know those fizzing airy symphonic textures that flap their wings high over the confines of our world, and yet also incorporate the earthbound, meaty and well trusting confidence of the mighty elephant - all of this manufactured through deliciously playing instrumentalists - then Metamorfosis' one hit wonder could be your next purchase. It's truly like fondling a pinkish daytime moth whilst straddling a big heavy pachyderm under the silhouetted skies of the Hispanic peninsula. An experience to say the least...

Share this METAMORFOSIS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Guldbamsen
• Report this review (#626124)
• Buy METAMORFOSIS music online with PA partners
• Show all METAMORFOSIS MP3/Stream
• Go to METAMORFOSIS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Papallones I Elefants page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for METAMORFOSIS related discussions