PAN & REGALIZ [AKA: I CAN FLY]

Here's some Bread & Liquorice from Spain, por favor! This band masterminded by vocalist and the main songwriter Guillermo Paris has become a high-prized collector's item as a vinyl, as often happens with rare one-album bands. If you think of the difficult times of the cultural life in Spain at the time (as briefly referred in the liner notes), it surely adds to the historical value. Musically this could be thought to come in the late 60's rather than 1971, but this is not Great Britain.

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.