Understanding the poor sound quality, as mentioned below, plays a major role in one's appreciation of Ave Rock's debut. My opinion has flip-flopped over the years, and I'm now of the mindset that this is a very fine progressive rock album. As with many records from Argentina, the style of music recalls the 1970s Italian scene, which makes sense given their ancestry. Imagine heavy organ rock like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple that is suddenly tipped on its head with all sorts of crazy rhythms, counterpoint, melodic dissonance, and general madness. Bands like Triade, Alphataurus, and L'Uovo di Colombo all come to mind here. And with the good comes the bad, which includes the whiny singer-songwriter bits and the straight up rock and roll segments. But that's the music of the early 70s Italian era - and the music here on Ave Rock's debut. I highly recommend you listen to this with headphones, and focus intently through the grime of the original recording. Casual listening will leave a negative impression.
Ownership: LP: 2019 Svart (Finland). Gatefold. Recent online acquisition (2022). Fine reissue that replicates the original cover, with an additional insert of liner notes, not particularly that in-depth. The sound is not very much improved from the CD (see below), so that was disappointing. Also they goofed up on the "obi" strip. For gatefolds, you either keep it open ended or it fits on the front panel. Here they put it over both panels so you can't open it lol. Fortunately it slides off easily. They caught their mistake for Espacios.
This LP replaces the CD on PRW (Brazil), which is of good quality, typical of the label, with photos, lyrics, and a nice layout. However the sound is not good at all. It's taken from a noisy LP - and if I had to guess - it probably was a minty copy too. I've never owned the original but I have to suspect, based on personal experience, that it doesn't sound very good. And this tells us the masters are probably long lost. My first copy to own was on the LP on Marcoumar. The packaging was very well done, but of course the sound was no better (sourced from the CD I'm sure). And then I found out it was a pirate edition and ditched it to auction a few years ago.
12//9; 1/18/15 (new entry); 8/4/22 (LP upgrade)
I think that the vocals are the weakest part of them in both their albums. Unfortunately they've put me off...
ReplyDeleteHi Spyros - Would be difficult for me to argue the point because they aren't easy to digest for sure. :-)
DeleteBut the music, especially in "Espacios" is great!
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