PAN & REGALIZ

The year 1971 launched the band into instant success with the debut of its one and only self-titled album that featured eight tracks of early Spanish psych and prog as well as performing at the Granollers Progressive Music Festival where they immediately made a huge impression as Spain hadn't quite latched onto the early sounds of progressive rock brewing in the UK, Germany and abroad. The members of PAN & REGALIZ on the other hand clearly had their hands on the pulse of the international market as they eschewed crafting lyrics in their native Catalan or even Spanish and rather performed in English. Likewise the band emulated the British scene with clear references to Jethro Tull and early Pink Floyd as well as finding affinity with the early German Krautrock scene and its psychedelic excesses.

Although this album only ran for about 30 1/2 minutes it displays an interesting contrast between the A side of the original album and the B side. Side One featured the band's most accessible sounds including the first single "Dead Of Love" all of which exemplified the affinity of Jethro Tull influences with the early blues rock of "This Was" and the guitar and flute soloing trade offs as heard on albums like "Stand Up" and "Benefit" however PAN & REGALIZ wasn't a clone and made these styles their very own with highly varied compositions and a more psychedelic and jazzy touch. The first side culminates with the flute-laden instrumental "Thinking In Mary" which showcased the band's unique rhythmic style as well as use of acoustic guitars and soloing improvisation.

The second side of the album is something else altogether with each track going down completely different roads. The unexpected "A Song For The Friends" takes a journey back to the days of the music hall which features a cabaret piano performances with a rather theatrical foxtrot dance performance which was popular in the 1930s. Then with "When You Are So Bringdown" the band jumps back into blues rock with a bit of Jimi Hendrix swagger. The true progressive psychedelic trip of the album though comes with "Today Is Raining" which immediately exudes an Amon Duul II meets Guru Guru reckless abandon for convention and immediately finds a throbbing bass groove accompanied by trippy organs, spastic drumming and even a jew's harp! Even the vocals display a rather drugged out persona reminding of Can. The music still implements bluesy guitar licks and leads while the cyclical loop style of Krautrock propels the track into a sprawling procession of strange motifs laced with sound effects and detached escapist cosmic unorthodoxies. The track really floats off into space towards the end.

The album ends with the more standard "I Can Fly" which also served as the title of the album when it was reissued on the Orange label in 1979 with a completely different track listing. This was the only reissue to feature this title and all others after reverted back to the eponymous original intention. This track is a nice little confidence booster with bouncy bass groove and psychedelic guitar and sound effects and is by far the most standard psychedelic rock track on the album. One of the coolest tracks on the album as well.

Later reissues also included the pop single "Magic Colors" which features a funky guitar riff and sounds more like a British psych pop hit from around 1968 or some of the crossover prog of The Moody Blues only with a more energetic display of guitar heft and a healthy dose of the Tull-ish flute that dominates the album's content. Overall PAN & REGALIZ may have displayed its influences clearly on its sleeve and doesn't sound even remotely Spansih in any possible way but still managed to emulate the English and German scenes without sounding overly much like the influences they were worshipping. Many may find this album to be lopsided and uneven or even unfocused but i tend to love these kind of albums that offer a wider display of a band's creativity and given that the band only release one album they made it count. While the band was successful it pretty much ended when bassist Artur Domingo decided to join the band Evolution and drummer Pedro van Eeckout followed stuff and joined Jarka. París tried in vein to keep the band going but finally called it quits in 1973.

Labelled as Proto-Prog, this music is easily described as "strongly Tull-inspired bluesy psyche rock" (hdfisch) - why change such an accurate line! Songs are shortish, around 3 minutes, with one exception: 9-minute track 'Today It Is Raining' (in the album info the long time is given to 'I Can Fly', by mistake, I think. I can't check it out now...) It's the most psychedelic one, a slowly starting composition distantly reminiscent of 'The End' by The Doors in its hazy, melancholic, wandering atmosphere. It is very interesting, and the time runs sooner you realize, except for the last couple of minutes which feel rather useless. Most of the short songs are very nice too. The best songs are the mellower ones, not at all as bluesy as the earliest Jethro Tull often was; the comparison comes also for the flute which suits the music wonderfully. Believe or not, the band hadn't much heard of Jethro Tull, but - not surprisingly - they liked it a lot when introduced to Tull's music. Vocals are also good. Rather funny that they chose to sing in English even if the band name is in Spanish.

Sadly the album is very short, just about half an hour. That, and the certain roughness and uneven-ness of the songs together make me give "only" three stars despite of the album's high rarity and goodness of its best songs. If you see this in library, don't hesitate to borrow it.

But actually I wouldn't call it an essential one for a prog fan in general rather for the passionate collector of obscure rarities.I'd give half star extra if possible!

Made up of five short tracks, the first side of the vinyl sticks very close to a bluesy/jazzy/psych-rock, which is very reminiscent of Jethro Tull's debut album. Highlights are the opening One More Day, Monsters's Garden and instrumental Thinking In Mary (somehow close to Serenade To A Cuckoo on Tull's debut), but unfortunately a rare out of context track (but thankfully short) closes that side. The second side is rather harder rocking with the sombre mood Bringdown complete with a great bluesy guitar and closing with the reflective acid-blues title track. But the centrepiece is clearly the 9 min track full of psych-out moments that give this album, the final touch of flavour for stoner-rock fans with its strange mouth harp, lenghty space Floyd-like space trips. The bonus track is the only track that was on a single release not to be part of the album and it is superb addition, blending perfectly with the rest of the album, but more the happier first side then the more sombre second side.

For some, it might be a little too derivative with its superb Tramp-like flute work (clearly even Abrahams's guitars were also present), but if you love that period of time, I Can Fly is a must-have.