N.H.U.

One of the very first progressive symphonic rock bands to emerge from the Galician region of Spain, N.H.U. (which stood for the Galician "Noche Hermosa Una" One Beautiful Night) was formed in 1974 in the city of Santiago de Compostela. While the band was active playing the live circuit, the prog party was interrupted between 1975 and 1978 when the band members were called into the military as the 1970s was still an unstable time for Spain following Franco's rule. The band regrouped in 1978, the peak year of Spanish prog to record and release its sole eponymously titled album found a home on the Madrid based Novola label which had been hosting psychedelic rock and other adventurous bands since the 1960s.

While the lineup changed over the years, the musicians that ended up on the album included Roberto Isidoro Abal Garcia (guitar,) Tino Grandío (bass), Xurxo Pérez (Hammond organ, vocals), Xulio Ferreiro Garea (percussion) and Xosé Manuel Ferreiro Garea (drums, vocals). The album features six complex tracks that are mostly instrumental but feature a few sporadic vocal parts sung in the Galician language. While most similar to jazz fusion artists like Iceberg, N.H.U. featured a wider breadth of influences ranging from King Crimson, Frank Zappa (fusion stage), Yes and the multitude of Spanish prog artists that existed at the same time. The band suffered the same fate of many similarly minded bands of receiving good reviews from prog loving music critics but found no support in terms of distribution and marketing from the record label.

Considered one of the most demanding Spanish prog bands of the era. N.H.U. featured all the typical elements of the greater Spanish prog scene with complex time signature-rich compositions, ample use of keyboards, trippy acid rock guitars and a jazzy percussive drive which all conspired to make the band a bit eclectic. While the jazz fusion paradigm serves as the complex tapestry of instrumental interplay, the use of dramatic organ runs and echoey guitar sequences offers a major dose of psychedelia and the overly abundant use of angular time signatures adds a sense of avant-prog intrigue to the mix. The heavy use of the Hammond organ, moog and Fender Rhodes gives it a true sense of symphonic in the vein of early Genesis and the album is chock filled with a psychedelic atmospheric presence. Knotty and choppy the album may be a bit inaccessible at first as it's a bit tough to grasp onto as the rhythmic drive never remains the same for long.

Despite the heavy use of proggy time signatures and other complexities, the album is actually often on the light and breezy side sounding more like bands from the Argentinian prog scene (Invisible, Crucis, Arco Iris etc) than its Spanish contemporaries. In the end the band sounded fairly unique without jettisoning its Spanish prog connections. Given Spain's late start to the prog party most of these bands were lucky to crank out an album or two before facing financial ruin or rather turned to more commercial music to appease the record labels. In the case of N.H.U. with no record label support the band folded after one album with most of its members disappearing from the music scene along with the band itself. The exception was lead singer Emilio Can who continued a solo career as a singer-songwriter of traditional Galician folk music. This one is a forgotten gem from the Spanish prog scene that is as worthy as the better known artists such as Mezquita, Triana, Crack, Atila or Gótic.