GUSANO MECANICO

A band so obscure and album so painfully rare it makes those underground acetate reissues look like garden variety pop and the only Bolivian group listed in these archives, Climax is a rough and scratchy sheep in wolf's clothing, a progressive power trio in the finest tradition that bloozes its way through this only release from 1974. They'd been together since around '69 and it shows, with plenty of post-Cream atmosphere, the bass-heavy swing of Zep, Hendrix's acid funk, and the not-quite-right jazz of Tempest.

But there is definitely something else going on here. You can let the fumbling grandeur of 'Pachacuttec' roll over you but you'd miss the subtle Latin hints, continual variance, and Alavaro Cordova's not so subtle Keith Moon drums. You may dismiss 'Tranfusioin de Luz' as mere Page-baiting with its near-distaterous tempo and awful guitar solos, and you'd be right. And 'Cuerpo Electrico' sounds like all the B-list heavy psych you ever heard rolled into one unsure cement block of love, face-blushing mistakes and all. But then there's the 3 part title cut and suddenly guitarist/singer Jose Eugenio's keyboard breaks out the Keith Emerson and we have a whole new ball game, a heavy prog opus in miniature that belies this band's shameless lack of polish. It makes us realize there was mediocre Prog that still cooked and had hidden away in it something for those wishing to dig a little deeper, made by unassuming musicians who wanted to be part of what was happening. The piece is an epic in a toilet and Cordova, Eugenio and 12-string bass player Javier Soldias were ambitious if woefully inadequate. The result is rather fascinating, a brief meeting of the salty dog bluesmen of the 1960s and art rock sophistry that was to follow.

Only recommended to those willing to jump into this ice-cold water but if your taste for raucous and leathery heavy prog of the vintage variety needs saitiating, check em out one Sunday afternoon.