ALTER HUEVO

The first track of this debut album is an excellent introduction to the band as it contains almost all the most important elements of their music. "Tetascotch" opens with a circus like music but also in this "joke" we can guess how much skilled they are. After one minute the track changes and what comes next is a succession of jazz, avant and Zappa-esque moments. It's Rock In Opposition but lighter than usual. Similar to Art Zoyd in the darkest moments but usually not so dark, so that they could figure well also in the JR/F section of PA.

There are dissonances, pauses and sudden changes in tempo which are frequently ingredients of RIO and Avant, but the background is clearly jazz even in the most chaotic and noisy tracks like "Tu Guaina".

The mood changes frequently. "Variaciones Sobra Tu Hermana" (Variations about your sister) sounds like contemporary classic but is also close to the chamber rock of Art Zoyd and Univers Zero or even to the latest Stormy Six. Episodes of this kind exist together with grotesque phases, but in any case the jazz element is always present, even in the fantastic percussion solo which opens "Tillana". Not to say of the paino/sax crescendo which follows. The sounds are a bit dark but the mood has something of Canterbury, specially in a short section at around minute 2:30.

Loops and tapes play their part too. The intro of "Cerrazon en el Teyu Cuare" (Cerrazon means "closure" or "captivity". Teyu Cuare is a place at the delta of Parana' river). This is probably one of the few overdubbing applied in post-production to an album that is almost tentirely recorded live in studio. Only the intro. The rest of the track passes through a noisy jazz passage and goes into a slow atmospheric piece of beauty with bass, piano and alto sax (plus tapes).

After one intense and excellent minute and 20 secs of free jazz ending like an old Pink Floyd's song (guess which?) we arrive at the last track. "Cletalandia" opens as an orchestral piece in the vein of Weather Reports but with more dissonances. Voiceovers (in Spanish) come to put the music in the background. The joke of speeding up and slowing down their playback sounds very Zappa-esque. My Spanish is not that good to understand everything the characters say, but it looks funny. When they stop we go back to (excellent) chamber rock. One of the main characteristics of this band is to put "a bit of everything" inside the same track. The reprise of the main theme is driven by the bass. It's everything but dark even with some dissonances. A very happy handing for an exciting avant-jazz-rio album.

Rating it is not easy. My temptation, driven by the enthusiasm, is to consider it a masterpiece, but after falling in love with it, the rationale part of myself says that 4 are a better rating. Regardless the rating, if you like the genre buy it. It's only defect is the length as 40 minutes albums belong more to the vinyl era than to now. Anyway a short album is better than a long one full of fillers.

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.