Embrujo - Embrujo (1971)

[PopTodd]

Just picked this up today, based upon the fact that it looked like a cool, old Spanish-language psych thing.

I was right.

Chilean band Embrujo's lone self-titled album, originally released in 1971, is one of those records that was beyond the grasp of the public at large for decades, unless you wanted to fork over an unreasonable amount of money for it on eBay. But the psychedelia archivists at Shadoks gave it a 2011 CD reissue, reminding the world of the place this nearly lost classic holds in the history of South American psychedelic rock. Progressive rock was still in its embryonic stages in 1971, and even though the Summer of Love was already receding into the mists of history, psychedelia still had some steam left, probably even more so in South America, where there was still a bit of a time lag for Anglo-American musical influences to take root. In fact, Embrujo had already released an album in the late ‘60s under the nameKissing Spell, but due to the highly charged political climate of the time, with foreign intervention being a particular hot-button issue, they abandoned their English-language moniker in favor of the Spanish word for "spell." As Embrujo, the band delivered a highly melodic record colored as much by pastoral flute and plaintive piano and organ as guitar, leaning more toward folk and pop influences than the blues-based sounds of the San Francisco psych scene, and occasionally evoking a sort of South American version of Traffic. Even when the guitar comes to the fore, it bears a lyrical, jazzy feel, rather than the fuzzed-out sound that was all the rage in the hippie era. While Shadoks seems to have done as much as possible to clean up the sound, the production here is mediocre to begin with, so the level of fidelity can only get so high. Still, there's enough melodic invention and psychedelic charm to render such concerns negligible.

 

Haven't given it a listen yet, but I am planning on doing so when I get in to work tomorrow.

Any of y'all heard of these guys? Heard the record?

 

GtrPlyr: I'm looking at you!

[mpolak21]

Sounds up my alley, will have to check it out.

[PopTodd]

Listening now and am almost all the way through.

The liner notes say that this album is 1971, but the sound is more 1968; very typical-sounding psych stuff. I don't mean that in a bad way, just as a matter of fact. So, if you like that kind of space-jazz psych stuff, you will really dig this. mpolak, I'm thinking that you will be one of those who will dig it.

Myself, I like this kind of thing when I am in the mood, and I am enjoying this record, but not loving it. The hooks just aren't immediate. But I can see it growing on me with a few more listens. As it is now, I just plain like it.

But, it is well-worth checking out for you psych fans, and I am glad that I took the chance and picked it up.

[GtrPlyr]

I do love a lot of the South American psych of that era so this has me curious indeed. There is so many psych reissues out there these days, it's really time consuming to wade through them all. Unfortunately most are quite average. Will keep my eyes open for this one though, the tracks I just previewed sound pretty good.

[Synthesizer Patel]

Just a little heads up here: Tom Ze's debut is being reissued later this month (well, here in the UK, anyway - so you might have to get it on import in the US), pretty good Tropicalia - not quite up there with the other big names from the scene, but still really really good.

[PopTodd]

Found a couple of YouTubes.

Here's one: