JERICÓ

JERICO, Carlos Beltran's only registered debut 1987 album, here in this PA site, turns out to be a bag of thrills for the Progressive Electronic planet citizens.

Combining dreamy symphonic electronic textures with straight forward acoustic piano performances, if not for the "tagging" needed, this work will actually fit in both the "symphonic" and "electronic" sub-genres. The symphonic crowd will surely be thrilled by the classic compositional skills, this musician is capable of. . On the other side, people who favour the "electronics" will find a superb alternative to the zillion TD copycats, that have "standarized" such a rich style of music.

So,...Welcome to the world of Beltran's symphonic electronic songs. The pieces, there are four, have no relation with each other, therefore we get a full picture of the musician's ability to compose and perform single handed the whole album.

But above everything that is good in "Jerico", the best part still is its way to stand outside TD's domain without avoiding the use of "flowing" synth environments and sequenced pulses, by up front and original songwriting and the use of un-pretentious classical structures in the arrangements for each piece, which by themselves, work wonders as a listening experience.

And the not so good news, still are, the hard to get this album is. But with a little effort you will find the CD copy of the original vinyl, as I did.

Anyway, even though it is not easy to acquire (not impossible), it still stands as a ****4 PA star work that Prpg "electronic" and "symphonic" followers will surely appreciate.