Home Artist links Label link

El Puente de Alvarado - Conquista Y Destruccion De Mexico Tenochtitlan

Artist:	El Puente de Alvarado
Title:	Conquista Y Destruccion De Mexico Tenochtitlan
Label:	Momia
Length(s):	40 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	09/1996

Line up

Carlos Alvarado - synth, samplers, piano
Ricardo Moreno Echeverria - guitars
Armando Beltran Manzur - bass
Victor Balslovinos Moreno - drums

Tracks

1)	Espiritu Volatil	3.08
2)	Relieve Muro	3.25
3)	Fundacion	4.37
4)	Rosa Mexicano	3.51
5)	La Noche Del Jaguar	4.27
6)	Duro Como El Desprecio	2.57
7)	Prisoneros II	3.04
8)	El Orden De La Negacion	2.50
9)	Barbarie Simultanea	1.49
10)	Conquista U Destruccion...	9.52

Summary

Do I know anything about this band? Not really. The synth player seems to be reknowned for his work in EM, but that doesn't help here. Some info given with the album suggests Heldon and Bi Kyo Ran. I don't know the latter, but musically they do not really compare with Heldon, or it must be the overall dark atmosphere.

The music

Well, if you need anything to scare the neighbours, this might be it. The artwork already implied it in some sort with all kinds of not too friendly paintings by a mr. Capdevila, who has only recently passed away. The drawings/paintings in the booklet should give you some idea what haunted this man.

Okay to the music now. The first track is an anthemic, menacing track with interplay between guitar and keyboard, compare with Balleto di Bronzo's Ys. The next one starts out like industrial music, but turns out to be an up-tempo Hawkwind-like rocker. The third track shows some ethnical "Santana" influences, but of course more varied and far more interesting.

Only, in the fourth track do we find the first indication that the synths might be more important than they seemed, because up to now most of the music is e-guitar. When the guitar does take over, it turns out that this song is just one long meandering guitarsolo with backgroundnoises.

The next track starts out with military percussion and the typical biting high guitar sound is again the leading instrument. Again this is mostly an up-tempo guitarsolo with some organ thrown in. At the end the rhythm section really starts pumping, although the tempo of the guitarsolo doesn't really change. Energetic.

The next track is more of the same although for variation some churchbells are thrown in for good measure.

Prisoneros II has a good catchy riff to it and also contains some saxophone, but again it's the guitar and in the lead and everything just has to try and follow.

The guitarplaying in the next track is definitely slower though not less rough and my idea is that this is THEIR idea of a rest point in the music. Percussion has a large place in this song and guitar can only be heard more or less in the background. The guitar does start to sound overly familiar now.

Before the epic, Barbarie is actually a barbaric track, coming close to punk rock in speed and chaoticity (new word, I've done it a again).

The last track, the epic, starts of with the guitar in the back and churchbells in the fore. Also some other keyboard noises are present. The riff is good, and at one point the guitar sound changes a bit to become somewhat noisier, a welcome change.

After a rest period, the guitar continues, but is quiet when the bass barges in. Here also some piano is interjected. More variation in it than any previous nine minutes or so and the best track on the album. The keyboards are also more prominent on this track.

Conclusion

A haunting album. In my opinion to be preferred over for instance Humus. The sound is not so varied, but there's more composition here. For the rest, this is heavy, raunchy, distorted progressive, with a big high, passionate guitarsound and heavy rhythms. Once in a while the keyboards have their way but not that often. Powerful instrumental stuff, although I do tire of the everpresent same guitar sound. Fortunately the melodies are good, and the playing is enthusiastic and driven.