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Ficcion - Sobre La Cresta De La Ola
| Artist: | Ficcion |
| Title: | Sobre La Cresta De La Ola |
| Label: | Musea fgbg 4657 |
| Length(s): | 47 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 2002/6 |
| Month of review: | [07/2008] |
Line up
Jose Ignacio Lares - keyboards 1,8
Andres Clavijo - bass 2,8
Luis Contreras - bass 1
Gerardo Ubieda - drums 1,2,6,7,8
Isaias Paris - drums 3,4,5
Alexis Pena - vocals 2,4,6
with
Jose Benamon - second voice 2
Omar Oliveros - maracas 2
Ismel Vasquez - violin 5
Tracks
| 1) | Peces | 4.57
|
| 2) | Planeta Porno | 6.56
|
| 3) | Regreso A La Autopista | 4.20
|
| 4) | Solo Y Acompanada | 6.40
|
| 5) | Danza Boreal | 3.35
|
| 6) | Rallel Y/O El Ultimo Tren De Tu Vida | 5.32
|
| 7) | Un Nuevo Amanecer | 4.46
|
| 8) | Suite De Las Siete Virgenes Y Una Mula | 9.50
|
Summary
The music
Next to this album being released four years after its original conception, a number of the tracks on the debut of this Venezolan band date 25 years back. The style is what you would call typical for South American prog. A melodic sound, vocals in Spanish, lots of flute (the majority of it electronic and fake sounding) and piano with assorted classical influences. The sound is lush at times, but moves towards stinted at others, blaring even. And from the sound of it, not just the composition of the songs was 25 years ago, my goodness what poor production and sound quality.
Neither singing nor playing are very tight, they sound at a quality some bands would best during live shows, let alone in the studio. Due to this the music sounds like the compositions are not done justice, since the ideas behind them are not executed well enough. Un Nuevo Amanecer, for instance, is all over the place, bleeps and blips galore, but no melody or structure. I can't imagine it was intended this way. But it's not all bad. Danza Boreal for instance suddenly has far better vocals, raw and emotional, with some layered vocals in the background, with a melody that flows pretty well. A shame the song isn't a bit longer, but luckily the feel is carried over into the next track.
Conclusion
Granted: I'm not into South American prog at all. Having said that, I do enjoy a good bit of Sagrado or Jaen Kief. Ficcion aim for the same category, but their execution leaves to be desired. A lot. Sample synths are used in such a way that it's obvious they are sampled. The vocals are halting most of the time. The compositions lack a structure and fluent bridges, resulting in the impression of things being stuck together haphazardly. And then there's the technical glitches of poor sound quality and production.
With a bit of coaching of the band as well as a full re-recording Musea might have gotten some more mileage out of (some of) these songs, especially if you consider the material picks up somewhere halfway through. In its current form I can't say that I see a justification for their release. Prog has come too far to still accept these sort of releases.
© Roberto Lambooy