We've read reviews of bands doing the western influenced thing before on KvltSite. If you've not been following, we covered the latest albums by Earth and Across Tundras and with one listen to this Argentinean supergroup (members from Poseidotica, Dragonauta etc.,) it's obvious that there's a lot more one can do with the Ennio Morricone influence.

This sounds like the South American psychedelic view point of this kind of music. You get surreal atmospheres, clean reverby guitars, whistles, hums and soulful, serene and intimate singing in Spanish.  Drums are marching, pounding and very fucking slow. They're in no hurry, but arrangements can get heavy and busy towards the end of songs, like on Cegador. The cheerful gallop of El Nagual Parte I reminds one of the happier moments on a Spaghetti Western and considering it comes after two really melancholic pieces, it's a well placed change.  Parte II begins with a drum bass groove followed by handclaps smartly arranged with some glorious ambience. While the beat and the backdrop are steady, the bassist does some interesting running lines and the song comes to a halt after some well done subtleties.

You remember the ending of Once Upon a Time in the West where the lady takes water to the railroad workers? Well, the short piece called Antesala will be a perfect alternative score to that scene. Conjuro De Los Matados, on the other hand, has a simple dark theme around which the whole song revolves. But wait till the jazz-blues influenced instrumental break around the second minute mark to surprise you before the band gets back to the motif. And they do that again.

Paraiso has a chilling keyboard riff around which the song is built. The arrangement is thin at the beginning but keeps getting bloated towards the end. It sounds like Nick Cave moved to South America and did a tribute to one of the truly remarkable genres of films. After that haunting epic, the album comes to a close with the uplifting Exodo. Again, it has a motif played with help from acoustic guitars, keyboards and vocals, over which there's a spoken word part. Great album!




Label: Aqualatan Records
Year of Release: 2007

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