Lei Seca - Art Rock (1999)

Artista: Lei Seca
Álbum: Art Rock
Año: 1999
Género: Rock sinónico
Duración: 45:27
Nacionalidad: Brasil

Lista de Temas:
1. Krakatoa
I- Lampung Volcanic Island
II- Pustaka Raja
III- View To The Sun
IV- A Hammer Of Gods
V- 1883
VI- Eruption
VII- Big Waves
VIII- Kuripan River
IX- Ash Hail
X- Krakatau Monument
XI- Pitch Dark
2. Amadeus I
3. Lei Seca II
I- Phoenix
II- Evolution II
III- Far Beyond Sea
IV- Evolution II
V- Seventh Years
VI- Grand Finale
4. Amadeus II
5. SR. Walker
6. Keep The Koram II

Alineación:
- Valdir Guimaraes / lead vocals, bass, occasional acoustic guitar
- Valdir Zamboni / acoustic & electric guitar, mandolin, vocals
- Mickey Nicolas / keyboards, backing vocals
- Cesar Frezzato / drums, percussion

Otro disco de Lei Seca que resube nuestro cada vez más querido Sandy, disco de tapa fea fea, no? lo que sí, el comentario que me mandé en el post está bastante bueno, así que sea como sea, los invito a pasar por aquí y conocer a los Lei Seca ¿o tienen algo más interesante que hacer?

Seguimos, como lo había adelantado desde la semana pasada, con títulos venidos de Brasil.
Este es el CD que presentamos ahora:

No, no, perdón, es que se vienen las fiestas y entre festejo y festejo no sigo mucho la ley seca... así salen los post.
Me refería a este álbum:

No... imagen equivocada... a ver si es ésta:

Carajo, el maldito Roger Rabbit (alias Conejo o Pyramide) me está contagiando con su delirio crónico, trataré de hacer un post más o menos como la gente.

El que presento ahora es un álbum de estudio de la banda brasileña llamada Lei Seca, reconocida principalmente por lo escasos que fueron sus álbums y lo difícil que es conseguirlos, más que por su calidad. El álbum fue lanzado en 1999 en una edición limitada de solamente mil copias, y por ello este disco es buscado por coleccionistas varios, y considerado una de las piezas emblemáticas del rock progresivo. Cantado en inglés, con una tapa cursi y ridícula, tiene algunas secciones muy disfrutables y otras que si no las escuchamos podemos seguir viviendo tranquilamente, un álbum quizás desparejo y con altibajos varios.

After the rebirth of Symphonic sub-genre in Scandinavia (Sweden mainly), one of the countries that embraced the original wonderful excesses of it was Brazil.
The available data about LEI SECA is very rare and misleading there's almost no information about their formation date except the late 90's but due to unconfirmed references about a first album called "Rottenness Way" in 1997 it could have been in the mid 90's, despite this info, most sites talk about one only release in 1999.
The band was formed by Valdir Guimaraes (Bass and vocals), Valdir Zamboni (Guitar, Mandolins and Backing Vocals), Micky Nicolas (Keyboards and Backing Vocals) plus Auro Okamoto in the drums later replaced by Cesar Frezzato.
Before being able to get a copy of their official release "Art Rock" read all the information about them and people describe them as a combination between ELOY and PINK FLOYD, but honestly my impression is totally different.
I see no Psyche or Space Rock connection mostly pompous and overblown (Love the sound of it) early Symphonic, the keyboards are impressive and it's evident Micky Nicolas is a Jürgen Fritz fan being that the TRIUMVIRAT connection is more than casual with a touch of "Look at Yourself" era URIAH HEEP.
The opener and 16 minutes "Krakatoa" reminds me of the epic aspirations of Spartacus and the elaborate characteristics of Illusions on a Double Dimple. Simply bombastic and reminiscent of the German scenario of the early 70's .
The vocalist is really less than efficient, thankfully the album is based more in long instrumental passages than in vocals because at some points the accent is totally disappointing.
I will keep searching for the supposedly first lost release and if I'm able to find it will be adding it to the discography because this guys released really strong Symphonic Prog.

Iván Melgar Morey

En todo caso, es un rareza que no podía faltar en este espacio tan dedicado al progresivo latinoamericano en general. Y en general, el álbum está bien, CASI muy bien. Aunque para otros el disco es realmente excelente (y acá entramos en una cuestión de gustos), como por ejemplo en el caso del siguiente comentario:

Pocas veces tan bien empleado el titulo en un album. Esta banda brasileña realizo en 1999 un disco que remite a los tiempos epicos y gloriosos del rock progresivo, sumandole toques etnicos y dotandolo de una belleza armonica digna de ser escuchada.
Las influencias podrian encontrarse en ciertas atmosferas que recuerdan a Pink Floyd, una linea melodica similar a la de Camel y la cuasi-pomposidad del mejor Eloy. No obstante, la gran cantidad de variantes y sorpresas, mas los repentinos cambios de ritmo, hacen que la musica suene fresca y siempre interesante.
El disco es basicamente instrumental (afortunadamente, porque el vocalista -que canta en ingles- es bastante elemental). El extenso y epico primer tema, "Krakatoa", es el punto mas alto: una sucesion de bellas mini-composiciones muy sinfonicas que aparecen unidas de manera muy coherente conformando una magnifica pieza. "Amadeus I" es un vals ejecutado con ritmo de samba. "Lei Seca II" es otro tema muy cambiante y melodico, al igual que "Amadeus II": aqui, a lo largo de siete minutos, la musica pasa de lo atmosferico a lo potente e incluye un homenaje a Mozart reproduciendo
brevemente una melodia clasica del gran compositor austriaco. "Sr. Walker" es un corto y bonito instrumental con muy buena percusion y, finalmente, "Keep the Koram II" es otra pieza epica con cambios de tiempo y algunos toques orientales y folk (acordeon mediante).
Una de las caracteristicas del rock progresivo, entre muchas otras, es la constante variacion ritmica dentro de la misma composicion. Aunque muchas bandas lo hacen, no todas logran tanta coherencia ni dar tanta fluidez a sus creaciones como Lei Seca en "Art Rock", sin perder -ademas- la belleza melodica por un solo instante. Un album excelente.

Marcelo Olivera

Canciones épicas, largas en general, siguiendo la tradición progresiva europea, aunque muchas veces (y por suerte) muestran la hilacha y les sale lo brasilero hasta por el cu... por el cuerpo y la música, eso. Álbum bien sinfónico, bien brasilero aunque traten de cantar en inglés y parecerse a lo que hacen los monstruos del sinfónico. Seguramente si hacían algo más propio y suyo, tomando como por ejemplo lo que hizo Bacamarte (¡herejía si no los escucharon!) esto sería algo parecido a una obra maestra.

The album's title is true. This Brazilian band did, in 1999, an artistic work that reminds the progressive epic and glorious times, adding ethnic and folk touches.
Influences could be PINK FLOYD (some atmospherical moments), CAMEL (the melodic line) and ELOY (symphonic and pompous soundscapes). Nevertheless, music sounds fresh and always interesting due constant changes and surprises. "Art Rock" is basically instrumental (fortunately, because the vocalist -singing in English- is the band's lowest point).
"Krakatoa" is the highlight: a long epic piece conformed by many short, beautiful and very symphonic compositions, cohesively joined. A majestic track. "Amadeus I" is a sort of vals played in samba rythm (the Brazilian national music), very nice. "Lei Seca II" is melodic and plenty of rythmical changes, great piece. In the same vein is "Amadeus II": along seven minutes, music flows from atmospheric to energetic moments, including a short homage to Mozart through a classical melody composed by the fantastic Austrian musician. "Sr. Walker" is a very nice instrumental track with lots of percussion. Finally, "Keep the Koram II" is another epic song plenty of changes with some Eastern and folky hints (accordion is used here).
One of prog rock characteristic is the frequent rythmical variation inside the same composition. Many bands do it, but just a few are able to be so cohesive as LEI SECA in "Art Rock", keeping -at the same time- the melodic beauty along the whole stuff. An excellent album.

Marcelo Matusevich

Como sice el comentario de arriba, por suerte las partes cantadas son pocas, porque encima que cantan en inglés y no en portugués, el inglés es malo, y la voz no acompaña, así que las partes cantadas no son el punto fuerte del álbum. Pero no se preocupen que para balancear está la parte instrumental, en eso mejoran y mucho.

Another interesting brazilian group that I had never heard of until recently, which seems odd since Brazil is my country (and I had to be advised by a dutch fellow about them!). So far, so good, anyway. Even if the CD cover is apalling their sound is quite good: melodic and accessible, and still bombastic and complex enough to please the demanding average symphonic prog fan. The guitar parts are the highlight: Valdir Zamboni is a creative and skillful musician that leads the band all the way through the CD. If you like guitar led prog bands, this is for you!
The band plays mostly instrumental pieces and this is clearly their forte: I liked very much their variety of sound landscapes and mix of styles. The CD never gets boring. Zamboni even includes some mandolin bits that are really nice. The other band members are as able as him.The vocal parts on the other side suffers from the same plague of so many prog bands through the style´s entire history: they are weak and uninteresting, more a hindrance than a good add on to the overall work. Not that bassist Valdir Guimarães is bad vocalist. But with a real, trained singer with a better voice it would have made all the difference. Fortunatly vocal parts are few and far between. The best track in my opinion is the first, the 16 minute epic Krakatoa (great keys and shifting moods all over it)
With a good production, good ideas, tasteful arrangements and excellent playing the band succeeds to deliver a fine CD that promises better things in the future. Unfortunatly it seems that those guys didn´t release anything since this album was out. I hope they will come back soon with something like this one.

Tarcisio Moura

Lei Seca's second album takes up the baton from their debut album. The music is again symphonic prog with a lot of influences. Too many influences, in my view. The bossa nova parts on this album makes me cringe. Lei Seca has even copied parts of that Welsh folk music song Led Zeppelin did with Sandy Denny on one of their albums.
Inbetween all the oddities on this album, you mostly get a mix of Pink Floyd, Eloy and Camel on this album. A nice mix if it is combined with strong melodies. But in this respect, Lei Seca fails. Krakatao is a drawn out epic and has no real good themes. I lost interest half way through it. It is a good epic, but nothing more. The same goes for the rest of the songs here. Good, but not great. The most baffling about this album is the album title. Art Rock ? Gimme a break ! They should had named it Krakatao or something else.

Toroddfuglesteg

Este es el segundo álbum que ha sacado la banda, tengo el anterior también, que quizás hasta lo pueda publicar hoy. Más o menos con la misma tónica, podríamos copiar este mismo comentario en el post del primer álbum y serviría perfectamente.

The second release by Brazilian Art-Rock outfit Lei Seca is a statement in symphonic rock.
Basing its parameters within the realms of the 70's progressive sounding, the album collects influences and display an intricate rendering of sorts. From the most evident Art-Rock textures, through Classic influences, Symphonic, Hard Prog, Folk and even some slight approaches to jazzy/fusion elements, Lei Seca deliver a very clever and, in many occasions, fascinating result.
The album is mostly instrumental, which is (in their case) an important aspect, for the vocal work is not, by any means, close to the quality of the compositions. The lyrics are sung in English but with a somewhat irritant accent that one cannot ignore. This is the greatest set back in this release but do not harm that much the overall result for they are only occasional.
The music sounds to me very much like a crossover mix between 70's defining bands, such as Eloy, Uriah Heep and Pink Floyd. But there are also some Anima reminiscences, mostly from the Singularities album.
Though the cover might suggest a heavy metal orientation, Art-Rock is never close to that suggestion. The songs are crafted in a complex and ever changing progressive suit with moments that guarantee satisfaction whatever is your sub-genre preferences. Sometimes ambiental, the next minute up-beat rhythms take control, driving the msuic in a completely different direction. This happening many times during the course of each song.
If the opening 16 minute opus is a total display of tremendous progressive structuring, Amadeus I adds some Brazilian Folk elements that surely will surprise the unprepared listener.
Lei seca II is another over 10 minute song, starting in a spacey, almost ambient mood till the guitar solo bursts on top of epic keyboarding. The music speeds up in a frenzy fusion madness just to slow down immediately afterwards. To be true, all of the 10 minute time comprehend a lot of twists and quircky changes.
Amadeus II starts as a calm and folky song, with melodic keyboards, though it is a bit annoying till it accelerates and the bass/guitar work open the hostilities. By the 5th minute, there is a small tribute to Mozart's music, through some well known chords, but only for a short-while.
The last two songs are shorter but reflective of the eclectic vision of this band. SR. Walker has a symphonic Yes alike musicality where the percussion has a very low profile yet highly accomplished work.
Finally, Keep the Koram II starts with a more military drumming (almost epic) while the music progressively grows. The vocals are awful (really) but the instrumental parts clearly compensate the effort of listening them. The accordion sound (maybe provided by the keyboards) prepares the song for the following harder and edgier end.
Though I do not consider this essential or tremendously good, it is a good album with lots of interesting instrumental parts, though I cannot patch with the vocals.
Nevertheless, quite interesting.

Nuno

LEI'S SECA four musicians (bass-vocals, guitar-mandolin-vocals, keyboards-vocals & drums-percussion) effectively refer glorious days. The music is full symphonic prog with powerful and subtle sections. The mandolin and acoustic guitar are used in various sections. The sound has influences from the seventies but the production is contemporary sounding. The musicianship is intricate as well as tasteful. Very Good.

Others

Para terminar, un álbum que quería traer más que nada por tratarse de una rareza, aunque tampoco está nada mal, solo algunos detalles e imperfecciones. Tampoco seamos tan duros, este álbum se grabó en 1999 y resulta muchísimo mejor que muchas de las cosas que hicieron y grabaron por aquellos años los verdaderos "monstruos" sinfónicos.