FAKE

Two decades after the release of their lonely debut album, the Cuban oddball band Música D' Repuesto resurfaced in Spain, compensating for their years of inactivity by publishing a boatload of albums in 2020. Fake is their one release from 2021 and feels like a culmination of what came before. Compared to their debut, the band mostly forgoes ventures into free improvisation and atonality, embracing their rock side more unambiguously while retaining their experimental streak, taking influence from jazz fusion, cleaning up their production a bit and adding a range of new timbres to their sound.

The album starts off strongly with "Anttes", a rocking prog song with lots of energy and a memorable theme interspersed with tritoney melodies, interlocking guitar, violin and keyboard lines and dissonant breaks. The title track follows in the same vein, except with a more pronounced jazz fusion vibe and even a slight krautrock feel, with band leader/bassist Lino García and new drummer Raylor Oliva providing a steady beat over a noisy backdrop, over which the violin, piano, analog synth and the dual guitar line-up are given free reign to play polyrhythms, weird pointillistic melodies and chaotic superimposed solos, with only a vocal interlude in the middle offering the listener some quarter. This format is repeated on several other tracks later on, but the title track is where it all comes together in the best way.

The eight-minute "Nostalghia" is really a surprise, with its peaceful piano-led downtempo intro with electronic drums, interrupted by a violin freakout which gradually returns the track to serenity before it collapses into pure atonal chaos in the final three minutes. The band goes for a somewhat similar sound on two more songs, but these don't try to hide their true identity as much: "Occeano" starts out as new agey tune with tablas but quickly turns into a funky rock jam with world music vocals, while "Besoos" has a syncopated techno beat running all throughout but delves right away into dissonant jamming, sounding sort of like a King Crimson improvisation from the ProjeKct days. There is quite a bit of King Crimson influence on this album, in fact. "Imprreso" and "Caterva" feature Frippy guitar arpeggios that sound like they belong on that band's Discipline album, and a lot of songs are built upon background textures that sort of resemble Robert Fripp's guitar soundscapes. Finally at the end we're treated to what's probably my favourite song on the album overall: A re-recording of "D' Cada 10 Hombres Q' Miran TV", a song that was featured on their debut but is presented here in a noticeably rearranged version. It's so satisfying to hear the guitar, violin and piano play its glorious main theme in unison, while Oliva backs them up with his best drumming performance on the album; a very effective and memorable closer.

One thing I can't get into as much as I'd like is Lino García's vocals, which come in two flavours: I'm okay with his attempts at imitating a Gregorian chant on "Expresso" and "Imprreso", and even his sleepy bossa nova-ish singing style fits well enough with the more subdued tracks like "Nostalghia" but it does not fit at all with the more rocking tracks, where it sounds rather insecure and out-of-place. My other main criticism is that the drums are often mixed way too loud, to the point where they even clip on some tracks. This is distracting, but ultimately not enough to conceal the obvious talent stored on this collection. Recommended for Crimson fans and anyone looking for avant-jazz rock with bite.