SANTA SABINA

Finally! Santa Sabina is on ProgArchives!

In the early nineties, Humberto Calderón from Neón created Culebra Records: a submark of BMG with the purpose of impulsing Mexican Rock bands from the era: bands such as Cuca, La Lupita, La Castañeda, Botellita de Jerez, and even Aterciopelados (from Colombia) launched great records under that label from 1992 until 1996, but while the bands I mentioned before were playing Hard Rock, Rock Pop, Ska, or Punk music, Santa Sabina dared to explore into the Progressive Rock field.

Rita Guerrero was born in the city of Guadalajara, when she was only 20 years old she moved to Mexico City to study acting, there, she met Alfonso Figueroa, Jacobo Lieberman, and Pablo Valero who in those days had a jazz trio called "Los Psicotrópicos"; all of them formed Santa Sabina, a group with a lot of influence from European Rock, middle eastern music, and theatrical inspiration. Lieberman left the group but he was fastly replaced by Juan Sebastian Lach and they got Rodrigo Garibay as a guest musician, with this line-up, the band recorded its first album, launched in 1992 and produced by Caifanes' guitar player Alejandro Marcovich.

"Santa Sabina" includes some of the most iconic songs in the band's discography: "No me alcanza el tiempo" ("Time is not enough for me"), "Azul casi morado" ("Blue, almost purple"), "Gasto de saliva" ("Spent of saliva"), "Siente la claridad" ("Feel the clarity"), "A la orilla del sol" (In the edge of the sun"), "¿Qué te pasó?" ("What happened to you?"), "Yo te ando buscando" ("I'm looking for you") and "Labios mojados" ("Wet lips") are probably the most popular tracks that came out from this album.

Through the record, this powerful sextet of musicians developed a very unique style, it was Mexican Rock, of course, but it was not the same as its contemporary groups, while Valero, Iglesias, Lach, Figueroa, and Garibay were playing the most diverse and rich catalog of rhythms, Rita Guerrero was making history in Mexican Rock with her delightful voice and unique interpretation. This album offers very sentimental pieces, some energic, chaotic and aggressive, some soft, delicate and elegant; it has hard riffs at some moments and very mystic atmospheres in others. Fusion is what I call this kind of music, very eclectic and artistic.

SONG RATING: No me alcanza el tiempo, 4 Azul casi morado, 5 Gasto de saliva, 4 Vacío, 4 Siente la claridad, 5 A la orilla del sol, 5 ¿Qué te pasó? 5 Chicles, 4 Mirrota, 4 Sueño de agua, 4 Partido en tres, 4 Yo te ando buscando, 5 Labios mojados, 4

AVERAGE: 4.38

PERCENTAGE: 87.6

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars