Album title: Los Jaivas aka Volantín
Artist: Los Jaivas
Nationality: Chilean
Label: Self-released
Chronology: Debut
Grade: C
PA Rating: 2.65
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Factsheet:
Tracklisting: Cacho /La Vaquita /Por Veinticinco Empaná /Tamborcito De Milagro /Que O La Tumba Serás /Foto De Primera Comunión /Ultimo Día /Bolerito
Comments: I can’t be one hundred percent certain (six years since I began this now) but I feel this may be the first prog artist we’ve had from Chile, if not from the continent of South America. I expect to hear some pretty ethnic stuff here, though when it starts it’s an almost music-hall piano melody; this quickly fades out though and here come the national instruments, some sort of horn with an organ, thumping, slow drums and a kind of chanted vocal, obviously in Portuguese (or is it Spanish? One of the Latin languages anyway). Yeah, looking at the album’s notes I see such things as maracas, caja, cultrun, trutruca and guiro, none of which I know anything about, other than the maracas of course. So you have a pretty authentic I guess South American sound, but is it prog? Well, so far I’d say no, but this is only the first track so let’s give it a chance.
“La Vaquita” starts off with congas and a whole lot of flute, certainly brings to mind hot nights up in the Andes maybe, or gatherings in the Amazonian rain forest if I had a clue what I was talking about, pretty evocative anyway, but still more what I’d class as World Music or South American traditional if such a thing exists, which I’m sure it does. Keep expecting some Ewoks to come out and start dancing! I would however have to say that so far this is not for me and this could be a struggle. Now it sounds like the Orangemen marching down the Falls Road on the Twelfth! Whistles and annoying drums and some ****er chanting - there’s no way this is prog. How can this even be considered slightly prog? Like listening to a bunch of Clangers. Shut up, they were cute and remind me of my childhood.
Next one’s just a confusing mess of percussion and xylophone and low chanting, though at least “Que O La Tumba Serás” isn’t as bad, with some nice guitar and peppy flutes and some actual singing. The only one so far that has come even within spitting distance of being prog - and it really isn’t, it’s just the one that comes closest - is “Foto De Primera Comunión” but I have to qualify this by also pointing out that the singer is pretty woeful. I mean, maybe this is ok for traditional or indigenous singing, but for prog it’s way below par. At least there’s an almost Carlos Santana guitar, but the percussion rises above far too much here to make it in any way enjoyable, there’s no keyboards and it just doesn’t do anything for me. Well, I gave it its chance, and a fair one, and now I’m dropping it, and just waiting it out. One more track to go. I won’t be listening to these guys again. All right, this one isn’t bad and it is quite catchy; like the idea of the church bells at the end, though for me they’re more in the nature of death knells than ones of celebration.
Favourite track(s): Foto De Primera Comunión
Least favourite track(s): Everything else
Personal Rating: 0.5
Legacy Rating: 0.0
Final Rating: 0.5
This is, as you can see, the very lowest rating I've given any album since I began this journal. I even considered giving it a zero, but hell, I have one favourite track so that has to count for something, even if not much.