Scooter Chronicles

Témpano - “Childhood’s End / El Fin de la Infancia”

Tracks:

1. Tres
2. Timorato
3. Lugar de Cesas Nuevas
4. Sin Retorno
5. Grillos
6. El Fin de la Infancia
7. Escape Para el Hombre Común
8. En la Via

So how did I come across an obscure progressive rock band from Venezuela? With some luck. And a subscription to “Progression” magazine and a membership at ProgressiveEars.Com. The reviews and descriptions that I read led me to find a copy of this, though it wasn’t terribly hard with many on-line prog rock CD dealers to choose from.

(From left): Miguel Angel Echevarreneta (bass), Gerardo Ubieda (drums), Pedro Castillo (guitar, vocals), and Giuglio Cesare Della Noce (keyboards).

First a quick history. Témpano started as a prog rock like band with their debut album in 1978. After little success commercially (the album gets critical acclaim in prog rock circles) they went pop rock, changing members, becoming a hit in South America. Then in 1998 the original four members got back together and recorded this album.

(The album also does have both the English and Spanish album titles on the packaging, almost like they wanted to cater to both.)

The album, truly one of my favorites, for the most part is instrumental. There is a small section with vocals on the 25 minute title track, and vocals throughout “Sin Retorno”, but that’s it. The best way to describe their sound is symphonic, meaning they have a very full sound, with lots of keyboards and some string sounds. Though these guys can open it up and rock, or bop along with some jazz grooves, and also bring in some of the sounds of their native folk music. They are all great musicians, especially bassist Echevarreneta.

The album opener is a short one and a half minute appetizer. It features Peter Pejtsik of Hungarian prog rock band After Crying on cello. It also features some extraordinary bass from Echevarreneta. “Timorato” is a nice mix between mainstream sounding rock and progressive weirdness, along with more cello from Pejtsik and more great bass. (OK, the great bass is a recurring theme, so I won’t mention it again.)

“Lugar de Cesas Nuevas” brings the band to it’s truer sound, being very symphonic with some great melodies. “Grillos” starts spacey, even sounding a bit like the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” in the opening seconds, and even gets a bit dissonant in the middle.

“Escape Para el Hombre Común” gets a bit jazzy, though it starts off as a sappy ballad, though thankfully for only the first 30 seconds or so. It switches gears from melody to melody and sound to sound, almost seeming schizophrenic. There is even some keyboard that sound reminiscent of late 70’s Yes, ala “Tormato” (yes, that cheesy sound Rick Wakeman used, but this is a good thing). Then “En la Via” is another great jazzy tune, and I mean really jazzy. A co-worker described this song as sounding like it was done by the contemporary jazz trio Uzeb.

As for the 25 minute title track, it is amazing. Like other progressive bands (and unlike Yes), there are many different themes pieced together. But it comes together so well, with such great arrangements and musicianship, it is just incredible stuff.

The one weak song is “Sin Retorno”, though not that bad. The problem is that Marcia, when first hearing it, said it sounded like a theme song to a Spanish speaking sit-com. Hard to shake that thought.

As I mentioned before, this is by far one of the best CD’s I have in my collection. None of the prior posts are in any order of ranking. But this one would easily be in my “top 10″, and considering I have around one thousand of them, that’s saying something.