Greco Bastián - With A Little Hell From My Friends (2022)

A great surprise to discover the work of this Mexican musician, who somehow managed to invite for this album some of the best musicians of the genre, from representative and even legendary bands. The music is difficult to categorize in a few words, as it is full of changes not only in time but also in style, genre or mood. We can find Zeuhl, Math, RIO, Jazz, Symphonic or Rock riffs. Influences from names like Zappa, Present, Magma, etc. To stop to analyze each track would be a crazy task, because the ideas come and go in a frenetic way, leaving barely space to breathe to the listener. One of those albums that we are thankful for because they never stop trying to surprise us at every second. And for glorious moments it really succeeds. Although the songs are different from each other, they maintain a curious conceptuality that lets us know in each track that they are pieces of a bigger whole, like chapters of a story that in 40 minutes takes us through colorful landscapes until bringing us back home with the majestic closing of the album, in that grandiloquent ending of "Exit filming for a muse". Great work, no doubt. Let's hope this is the first of several more with the same quality.