GRANDES EXITOS

Alas is another amazing band from Argentina, an often overlooked progrock scene! This CD is a compilation from their two studio albums, it contains seven compositions and the running time is at about 70 minutes.In general Alas makes fluent and dynamic progrock featuring great vintage keyboard work on the Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer (with echoes from Yes and ELP) along soaring string-ensemble and swinging Fender Rhodes electric piano. Despite the obvious hints to some symphonic rock dinosaurs, Alas succeeds to sound original by blending a wide range of instruments like trumpet, flute, acoustic guitar, percussion and harmonica. And the music is varied, from the bombastic ELP-inspired keyboard sound (Buenos Aires Solo Es Piedra, La Muerte Conto El Dinero and Aire-Surgente) to a jazzy piano solo (A Quienes Si No) and a vituosic duel between an acoustic guitar and piano (La Caza Des Mosquito), impressive! If you like Seventies symphonic rock with a strong adventurous touch, Alas is a band to discover.

Alas + Pinta tu Aldea!

It is good to notice that people is aware of lesser known bands, nevertheless they are only a few people that i could count with my own fingers, so what we have and love to do as followers of good music, is give a support to those lesser known bands, for example, with reviews!

Alas was a superb trio from Argentina who was part of the development of the progressive rock scene in South America, they released sadly only a couple of albums, but thet good thing is that both albums are excellent and were made with an exquisite musical quality and great compositions.

This time i started with the easiest review, i mean i am reviewing their compillation album, usually called a "The best of", so probably i will not be so specific about the songs and the band, i prefer to be more enthusiastic in the studio albums, so wait for those reviews and you will find more details.

This compillation of Grandes Exitos (greatest hits) is nothing but their two albums in one with the exception of a song called Silencio de Aguas Profundas, what Alas offer is a music full of great keyboards reminding me sometimes to Return to Forever for instance, with an extra and beautiful touch of the traditional sound of Tango from Argentina, the music is of course jazz fusion oriented, with some touches of symphonic prog and even a bit folk here and there, bombastic moments and very calm ones, all are songs of an extraordinary quality that everyone could love, this album contains 7 songs 4 long ones and 3 short ones that make a 70 minute album.

My favorite songs are "Buenos Aires Solo es Piedra", "A Quienes si no" and "La Casa del Mosquito", but believe me that every single track is excellent!

If you dont know Alas, this could be a nice way to start with his music, though it is always better to start with studio albums, my grade, 4 stars!! Highly recommendable to any prog lover!

This is a compilation containing the two original album releases by Alas, a prog keyboard trio from the late 70's out of Argentina and one of my most fortunate discoveries recently. Featuring a large keyboard arsenal and inventive group dynamics, Alas were characterized by a sound somewhere between the bombastic keyboard approach of ELP and the more stretched-out fusion explorations of early Weather Report.

The first two songs were originally sidelong compositions from their first self titled album and go through a multitude of tempo and thematic passages ranging from tight and sophisticated group performance in prog overdrive to spacey and experimental sections with some great build - ups. As good as this sounds, the last five songs from the bands second original album release 'Pinta Tu Aldea'(1978) are even better, primarily because of the addition of new bassist Pedro Aznar who turns in some electrifying virtuosic performances combined with the already heady performance of keyboardists Gustavo Moretto on everything from acoustic and electric piano, various organs, moog, mellotron, and other synthesizers and keyboards. I suppose I should mention that the percussion is certainly up to these standards also; and their is the unusual but colorful addition of some tasty flute, trumpet and acoustic guitar on several cuts.

The overall performances are exceptional blending tight and sophisticated progressive composition with some joyous yet technically impressive improvisation. This is a mostly instrumental cd with a few light and smoothly flowing vocal sections in Spanish. It is hard to believe a keyboard trio which maintains such a high caliber of excellent material seems to be hardly recognized within the prog fan community. I have to wonder how many more South American gems have yet to be discovered.

At various times throughout this ALAS cd, I am reminded of ELP, Miles Davis (circa "B. Brew"), Return to Forever, and some of the Italian prog bands, especially when these guys sing. Yet the manner in which they combine the various elements of those bands is unique and enjoyable, if a little perplexing at first listen.

You see, they kind of jump around in style, even within the same song. The first two songs (both of which hail from their first album in 1976) are loooong ones - 15:48 and 17:36! And they typify the ELP-Italiano-Miles Davis thing with kind of odd results at first. Initially, it was difficult for me to reconcile the near-silent, free jazz, rhythm-less sections that establish themselves in the middle of those songs. But then I realized the classical symphonic nature of these pieces, moving from scene to scene, and returning nicely to the place from which they started. (The last song on the cd makes good use of this technique as well.) These are mostly instrumental pieces, but some Spanish singing is present, and the wide array of keyboards (and trumpet!) is a real treat for us prog lovers.

The third and fourth songs here are shorter, in the 3-4 minute range. "Aire" was a bonus track on the re-release of the debut album, while "Rincon..." appears to be a previously unreleased track from around that same era. The vocals on these two tracks are a little Yessier (wordless on "Aire"), and the Chris Squire-like bass lines add to that notion. These are both great songs.

The last three songs here come from their 1983 album - too bad they couldn't fit the other 13-minute song from that album on this one. (They did have 11 minutes of cd space free, so even a long excerpt?....) These last few tracks have more of the Chick Corea electric piano sound, some nice touches of fretless bass in places, and even a tango groove here and there that reminds me of Weather Report. There are no vocals on these tracks, and not much left of the ELP style; but the last track (...Mosquito") is really cool with the flute/piano/acoustic guitar interplay. (I do believe that this is the only song on the entire cd with guitar.)

This was my first prog-fusion cd from an Argentinian band, and I must say that I was quite impressed. This is very interesting music - performed, composed and arranged very well. The official name of this cd is "Grandes Exitos", which literally means "great successes" (greatest hits?). Whatever - seek it out; alas, you do "need" this one.