Wara - El Inca. 1973 Bolivia

Wara's debut represents a very crude early progressive rock attempt coming from a third world country. Heck, really a fourth world country during this time. The production is very rough, at least the copy I have, with muddled bass and warbly sounds. The music is a mix of hard rock and prog, not an uncommon sound for the region. Similar to groups such as Tarkus (Peru), Modulo 1000 (Brazil), and Psiglo (Uruguay). Nice organ, guitar, and high pitched vocals in Spanish. If you have a tolerance for rough demo sounding recordings, then the music of El Inca will interest you. If looking for pitch perfect and professional progressive rock, steer well clear of this title. I enjoy the pioneering spirit and creative imagination applied. It's not always a pleasant listen, but I really appreciate the effort made.

Ownership: CD: 200? Revista Arte & Rock (Brazil). Jewel case release with little info. 

My database shows I purchased this in 2002, which makes Discogs' date incorrect. I made that note on Discogs seven years ago, but no one followed my lead. Now that I look closer, my version is a bit different and not in Discogs, so their version would be a second press. Likely to be an unauthorized release in any case, and Discogs has labeled it as such. Shoot, I could have sworn I heard someone bump into the turntable during the recording lol. However I suspect that all of the reissues are similar, as none of the labels show proper provenance. 

Originals are impossibly rare and likely to be covered in mud for the few that survived. When I worked for a global higher education company, one of my project managers was originally from Bolivia. A couple of times she would go back there to visit family, and I asked her to inquire about this album. She received blank stares haha. They knew the group, not the album. Worth a try I figured...

Just getting word that Guerssen of Spain will be reissuing this album legit in Oct of 2023.

2002 (first listen); 11/15/17; 9/20/23 (review/new entry)