GUSANO MECANICO

Prog bands from South America outside of Brazil and Argentina were quite rare in the 1970s but perhaps one of the nations where it was practically nonexistent was the landlocked nation of Bolivia. The sole exception was the La Paz based band CLIMAX which after the three members left their retrospective groups and traveled to the USA in 1968 immediately returned home to form one of Bolivia's first rock bands. Existing as a cover band for its early years the band released a couple EPs that featured cover versions of Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf and Cream. It would take another excursion back to the US and through Argentina in the early-70s for the power trio of José Eguino "Pepe" (guitars, keys, vocals), Javier Saldías (bass) and Álvaro Córdoba (drums) to catch the prog bug and upon returning recorded and released Bolivia's first prog album GUSANO MECÁNICO (Mechanical Worm) in 1974.

To call this true prog might be a bit of a stretch for most of the album. This band was very much existing in the 1969-70 timeline that Europe was in where the 60s world of psychedelic rock was slowly morphing into more complex musical expressions. To be more accurate, CLIMAX delivered a fast paced style of hard jamming rock that featured a few progressive twists and turns along with a few truly complex prog moments. The band most resembled a more adrenalized Cream meets Santana and while the music was mostly instrumental, the vocals that did emerge sounded a bit like Sting from The Police only sung in Spanish of course. The album was graced with a colorful rendition of M.C. Escher's famous "Relativity" which showcased a labyrinthine stairway with worms that represented humanity's current trajectory in the world of mechanization as a cog in a larger machine.

While the music isn't ridiculously original, the band did deliver a nice mix of heavy guitar riffing, psychedelic organ runs and an infinite variety of drumming techniques. The band unleashed a series of fascinating tones and timbres and feedback techniques that were straight out of the 60s playbook but taken to the next level so in that regard while the band weren't progressive in the traditional sense of crafting super complex compositions (for the most part), the band did deliver an infusion of progressive sound effects on the guitar, bass and drumming syncopations. The percussion is somewhat based on the Latin techniques brought to the English speaking world via Santana but this is just one guy jumping all over the place. In fact his drumming talent is quite substantial as his feisty business begins to enter Neil Peart territory.

While the majority of the album is on the heavier side of the equation, the band features a light psychedelic side as well with lots of slow oozing passages laced with wah-wah guitar and intricately designed atmospheric constructs with the assistance of keyboards. While compositional complexity wasn't the band's focus, the three part title track offered a triple suite dose of nice hairpin turns of theme and dynamics. The band in fact delivered quite a full sound for a mere trio with both substantial guitar and keyboard contributions by Jose Eugenio. There are also slight references to jazz which gives it a prog lite feel throughout its run despite it being based in the typical bluesy heavy rock of the era. The album featured six fascinating tracks that all crafted a unique persona of their own right. Comparable to bands like Cargo and The Netherlands or England's T2 for superficial comparisons but the band didn't really sound like any of its European or North American counterparts.

The band dropped this sole album onto the Bolivian market but didn't make the immediate splash that they had hoped and therefore drummer Alvaro Cordova jumped ship and moved to the USA and the band would soon fold after. As it stands this sole album is a really nice delivery of ferocious rhythms and features a diverse range of musical influences including Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer however the focus is on thundering guitar riffs, beefy bass grooves and an energetic display of percussive drive. While only light on the prog throughout its run, the title track entered full prog territory with knotty time signatures and adventurous twists and turns that easily qualify this band as a bonafide prog band of the era. If the idea of a Cream meets Santana styled heavy prog band sounds appealing then you can't go wrong with this rare example of 70s Bolivian prog. As the album has caught on over the years a few reunions have occurred but only resulting in live performances thus far. Later editions feature all the bonus track singles and unreleased material which is all inferior to the music on this album.