ENTROPIA

Hey, this immediately went on my review list. After all, they don't lose spirit over the course, promised! With their sophomore effort the INVERNADERO trio hailing from Chile provide a prolific album, very appealing. And that means permanently really, from the first to the very last minute. Yeah, when you think it's all over, quasi as a hidden agenda item some beach atmosphere and charming guitar playing will lead you into ... Entropia, an optimistic vision, or the new paradise maybe, fully managed with solar energy? Eh, I'm speculating a bit, don't know anything about the concept, the story behind that. There must be one, yeah, for instance all the track titles are pointing to scientific issues, hence probably to survival aspects concerning mankind in the same way. Yep, I wouldn't deny that.

The recipe? On one hand - just take the fabulous opener Voltaje Humano by way of example - a punchy and funky bass provided by Paolo Mardones, alongside with Sebastián Moncada's varied space guitars par excellence, plus Nico Norambuena sharing a stellar drum playing all along. And then, furthermore, some extraordinary compositions are waiting to be dealt with. Sound quality and production is perfect when it comes to my ears. Highly recommended, while entertaining due to diverse sudden turns, and bubbling over with impressive moments going right through me. Well done, chaps! Eagerly waiting for more.

I'd never heard of Invernadero (Spanish for "Greenhouse"), but having read Rivertree's review, I decided to check out their most recent album.

In short, Entropía is a good instrumental album which mixes psychedelic rock, post-rock, and heavy prog. In places it's repetitive, and a couple of the tunes are somewhat uninspired. But it's well-played and it sounds great.

One of the first associations I made was with Orzic Tentacles, a similarity noticeable within the first minute of the opening track, the groovy "Voltaje Humano" ("human voltage"). "Vorágine" (Italian for "chasm") is another one that reminds me a bit the Orzics, though without the sampling and synths. "Vorágine" is one of the more aggressive cuts on Entropía - - that is, until the sitar-led coda.

I also thought that Rush influences were occasionally at work here. "Reprogramación Sideral" ("sidereal reprogramming" - - not really sure what that means) would never be mistaken for Rush, but I think Lee, Lifeson, and Peart would sound perfectly natural playing it. I really enjoy the drumming in the second half of this track, which I'd consider a hybrid of post-rock and heavy prog. Similarly, "Historia de la Lluvia" ("story of the rain") starts off with an off-kilter rhythm, evolving into a pattern varying between post-rock and Rush-like moves.

Several other songs on Entropía include a particular type of verse-refrain iteration, with the "verse" featuring relatively clean guitar playing arpeggios over a relatively light bass-and-drumkit rhythm. The "refrain" is heavier, with distorted guitar and louder drums. This basic idea goes back at least to the Pixies' "Monkey Gone to Heaven," and was hard to avoid on rock radio in the years after Nirvana popularized it via "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Two cases in point are "Átomos" ("atoms") and "Historia de la Lluvia." The closing song, "Tempestad" ("storm") also loosely fits this mold over its first half.

But "Tempestad" is an even better example of what I perceive as a symbolic motif that recurs across Entropía. The term "entropía," as it turns out, is Spanish for "entropy." The American Heritage dictionary lists several meanings for "entropy," including "the tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity" and - - ominously - - the "inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society in several ways." Anyway, the organization of "Tempestad" slowly breaks down - - almost entropically - - over nearly two minutes, beginning shortly before 5:00 (a two-minute coda, essentially a "hidden track," begins at 6:50; I'm not sure how that fits my theory). In another instance that could be symbolic of entropy, the last three minutes of "Historia de la Lluvia" is a slow devolution into white noise. Very artistic! There are several other passages on the album which move from more structured to less structured.

Entropía has its shortcomings. For example, "Átomos" is bland, in my opinion, and I get a sense of déjà vu by the time "Reprogramación Sideral" and "Tempestad" roll around. On the other hand, tracks like the oddly structured "Energía Solar" ("solar energy") are fun and creative. "Energía Solar" also features great basslines and a totally awesome bass sound.

So here's one for fans of modern psychedelia, and to anyone to whom a fusion of post-rock and heavy prog sounds interesting.