MARGARITAS ANTE PORCOS

Crossover Prog • Latvia

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Margaritas Ante Porcos biography
Can there, actually, be a story of the band that has just recorded their debut album? If the band has been moving towards it for 24 years? Yes, there can!

So, why did it take so long? It's all about the intransigent position of the band leader, Zurab Pirchalaishvili: the quality of the musical material must be equal to the world's best examples in art-rock. The same goes to the quality of performance. That is why the band has gone through an exhausting number of line-up changes and stressful rehearsals with one and only aim: to reach the desired level of performance. Although, the major part of the material (all pieces with vocals) had been composed in the beginning of the '90-ties of the previous century, the album received the right to be released only recently.

Looking back, we can say the musicians have gone through the difficulties with purpose. Soloing guitar, bass and drums, odd meters like 9/8, 11/8, 15/8, intertwining melodic lines of the instruments, vocal exercises in three-octave range and complicated compositional structure of the pieces - all this makes up the debut album of art-rock trio Margaritas Ante Porcos from Riga.
The story of today's Margaritas Ante Porcos goes as follows.

In 1990 three ex-classmates, fans of classic hard rock dinosaurs (mostly Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) and classic art-rock (Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Rush) create a band called Black Angel. Zurab (guitar/vocals), Aleksey Bolotov (drums/vocals) and Andrey Pekinar (bass). The idea was to add the real rock groove and power to the complex art-rock forms.
By 1993 the band composes a full set of their own songs (including Schizo, Fly and Fiddlesticks), which they perform on a few concerts in Riga. The name of the band is changed to Alef (a tribute to the story by J.L.Borges). Friends and fellow musicians praise the music and encourage the guys to record the album, but the band doesn't have money for that, and the search for sponsorship doesn't lead to the success. A year later the band runs out of enthusiasm and stops rehearsing.
In 1996 a possibility to submit a song for radio rotation appears. The band sits down in the studio and by autumn records Schizo. However, the final mix appears only in 1999. Schizo is rotated several times a day. In spring, the band performs in this line-up for the last time, after that Andrey gives up music.

In 1999 - 2002 with the arrival of the new bassist, Igor Makushev, the old ma...Can there, actually, be a story of the band that has just recorded their debut album? If the band has been moving towards it for 24 years? Yes, there can!

So, why did it take so long? It's all about the intransigent position of the band leader, Zurab Pirchalaishvili: the quality of the musical material must be equal to the world's best examples in art-rock. The same goes to the quality of performance. That is why the band has gone through an exhausting number of line-up changes and stressful rehearsals with one and only aim: to reach the desired level of performance. Although, the major part of the material (all pieces with vocals) had been composed in the beginning of the '90-ties of the previous century, the album received the right to be released only recently.

Looking back, we can say the musicians have gone through the difficulties with purpose. Soloing guitar, bass and drums, odd meters like 9/8, 11/8, 15/8, intertwining melodic lines of the instruments, vocal exercises in three-octave range and complicated compositional structure of the pieces - all this makes up the debut album of art-rock trio Margaritas Ante Porcos from Riga.
The story of today's Margaritas Ante Porcos goes as follows.

In 1990 three ex-classmates, fans of classic hard rock dinosaurs (mostly Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) and classic art-rock (Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Rush) create a band called Black Angel. Zurab (guitar/vocals), Aleksey Bolotov (drums/vocals) and Andrey Pekinar (bass). The idea was to add the real rock groove and power to the complex art-rock forms.
By 1993 the band composes a full set of their own songs (including Schizo, Fly and Fiddlesticks), which they perform on a few concerts in Riga. The name of the band is changed to Alef (a tribute to the story by J.L.Borges). Friends and fellow musicians praise the music and encourage the guys to record the album, but the band doesn't have money for that, and the search for sponsorship doesn't lead to the success. A year later the band runs out of enthusiasm and stops rehearsing.
In 1996 a possibility to submit a song for radio rotation appears. The band sits down in the studio and by autumn records Schizo. However, the final mix appears only in 1999. Schizo is rotated several times a day. In spring, the band performs in this line-up for the last time, after that Andrey gives up music.

In 1999 - 2002 with the arrival of the new bassist, Igor Makushev, the old material gets archived, and the band switches to covers - both of the old dinosaurs and the new heroes like Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers. In this moment, the band gets its final name - Margaritas Ante Porcos. The large cover program gets a warm response from the public, but doesn't have further perspectives. Even a sponsor shows up, but the bandleader is firm: only original material must be recorded. Igor, who could cope with bass parts of J.P.Jones, Geddy Lee and Tony Levin really well, didn't have the sufficient skills as an original composer. That is why the band had to part ways with him.

In 2003, the band finds another bassist - Anton Medvedev. MAP rapidly restore the original program and complete Don't Even Try, My Dear!, the work on which started in 1995. They finish it's hardest part - the middle ''Canterbury'' part. The band plays a few shows, the last and the most successful one of which is Proguary 2005 - first Latvian prog fest. After that, Anton leaves the band. The co-founder of the band, Alexey, having not gained money and popularity gives up music.

Zurab is left alone, but soon he finds new soulmates - Dmitry Lisenko (bass) and Pavel Terehov (drums). Dmitry, who is capable of two-handed tapping technique and has impressive arranger skills, broadens the borders of the arrangement and pushes the music towards fusion. In 2007, the band records an instrumental, Forgotten Formula. However, Dmitry's departure to London for studies crashes all the plans.

Denis Dyakon takes the bass player's position in 2007. With his arrival, the puzzle is finally assembled. Now all members of the band have enough technique, musicality and financial support to record a full-length album. With the creation of Wheel of Time and Sirens of the Titan, the future album receives its final shape, and the band starts recording.

The fact that the process of the recording has stretched into four long years is connected with the lack of good sound engineers in Riga, but not with some difficulties of the recording. In February, 2012 Mikhail Medvedev, the man who was mixing the album, and before that had cooperated with MAP since 1996, suddenly dies. The whole year is spent on finding a good sound engineer. Sergey 'Amsterdam' Laletin spends a year and a half on mixing the material, because of his huge busyness in other projects. Although, by the beginning of winter 2014 the album is sent to mastering.

Voila! The 24-year story has a happy ending

Biography provided by the artist and used with permission
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MARGARITAS ANTE PORCOS discography

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3.00 | 7 ratings

Gluposti
2014

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Thanks to kev rowland for the artist addition.