Is Latin-America becoming the new prog leader?

This is an Argentine musical project featuring 10 musicians and focussing on three subjects: an album, an audio-visual show and a multi-media website (still under construction). The story on this concept album is about a person called Virgilio who is walking on the streets of Buenos Aires and lives between sane and insanity. During my first listening session I got more and more excited, this is a very alternating and captivating blend of different styles, from compelling and bombastic with some progmetal climates (evoking Ayreon), powerful Hammond runs and fiery guitar to mellow pieces with classical piano and violin, impressive church-organ intro's or folky oriented songs with acoustic guitar and warm English vocals, what a splendid musical adventure!

I give you some of the many highlights on this CD. First Darkest Side: it starts compelling and bombastic with heavy guitar riffs, orchestral keyboards, violin and fiery guitar, then a mid- tempo with fluent Hammond runs, wonderful violin-Mellotron and powerful guitar followed by a short mellow part with melancholical violin play and in the end a slow rhythm with sensitive guitar and violin. Then the track Fading Points: lots of shifting moods and great ideas with bombastic interplay between Hammond and heavy guitar, blended with sparkling classical piano and heavy guitar runs, very exciting and dynamic! Another great composition is Urban Battle II: after a church-organ intro the atmosphere is compelling with fat guitar riffs and powerful Hammond waves along fiery guitar runs. The parts with dreamy piano, violin and the distinctive bandoneon turn the music into a very captivating experience. Finally the song Urban Battle III: the climate is bombastic with progmetal hints featuring great keyboard work (church-organ, Hammond, Mellotron) and thundering drums. The final track from this breathtaking album is in Argentine style delivering a tango atmosphere with piano and bandoneon, how beautiful with a very moving, melancholical undertone!

I am sure that many progheads will be delighted about this excellent debut CD, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

When I was a young boy, my father taught me that it was important to meet other cultures. So we often went to musea about native Indians and he used to play LP’s with music from Greece, Russia, Roumania, Spain and often Latin-America, especially the Andean flute sound like Los Paraguayos, Los Incas and Los Calchakis. When I got in touch with progrock I was very pleased with Los Jaivas, the wonderful blend of ethnic and symphonic prog. Last week I was advised to buy Peruvian band Supay, I am very grateful (thanks Hans) because their blend of Andean folk and Western prog/rock is amazing! Supay is a new band that consists of six members, four are playing the ‘quena’ (an often used Andean flute) and two of those also play the ‘zampona’, a double panpipe from the Incas. Most of you will know these instruments from the Andean street musicians playing in Europe.

The CD is from 2004 but re-released in 2006 by the French label Musea and the Chilean label Mylodon Records. It contains seven pleasant and melodic compositions that sound like a progressive blend of Andean folk and rock music. In general the songs deliver fluent rhythms with an adventurous rhythm-section with the focus on the flutes and electric guitar. This results in a great tension between the cheerful ‘quena’ sound, the melancholic ‘zampona’ sound and the fiery and harder-edged guitarwork, in my opinion inspired by Hendrix and Blackmore. The guitarplayer makes impression with his frequent soli, often biting and howling and the duels with the flutes are great like on the first track when he uses wah-wah while the flute sounds like a nightingale! The keyboard player sounds a bit subdued: in Avanzado he delivers a bit jazzy organ solo, in La Nueva he plays a fine duet with a flute and in most of the other songs he accompanies on organ in a very tasteful way. That is also the strong point of Supay: the band sounds like a band despite the frequent soli and instrumental adventures. If you like a musical encounter between two different worlds, this is an excellent CD!