Almendra - 1980 - El Valle Interior

Almendra
1980
El Valle Interior

01. Las cosas para hacer
02. A mi dama
03. Miguelito, mi espíritu ha partido a tiempo
04. Espejada
05. Cielo fuerte (amor Guaraní)
06. El fantasma de la buena suerte
07. Buen día, día de sol

Almendra - 1980 - En Obras I & II

Almendra
1980
En Obras

101. Ana no duerme (Spinetta)
102. Tema de Pototo (Molinari - Spinetta)
103. Plegaria para un niño dormido (Spinetta)
104. Figuración (Spinetta)
105. Cambiándome el futuro (del Guercio)
106. Vamos a ajustar las cuentas al cielo (Spinetta)
107. Mestizo (Molinari)

201. Jaguar herido (Spinetta)
202. Color humano (Molinari)
203. Hilando fino (Spinetta)
204. Muchacha (ojos de papel) (Spinetta)
205. Hermano perro (Spinetta)
206. Rutas argentinas (Spinetta)

Almendra - 1970 - Almendra

Almendra
1970
Almendra

101. Toma el tren hacia el sur
102. Jingle
103. No tengo idea (Edelmiro Molinari)
104. Camino difícil
105. Rutas argentinas
106. Vete de mí, cuervo negro
107. Aire de amor (Edelmiro Molinari)
108. Mestizo (Molinari/Spinetta)
109. Agnus dei
110. Para ir

201. Parvas
202. Cometa azul (Emilio Del Guercio)
203. Florecen los nardos
204. Carmen (Del Guercio)
205. Obertura
206. Amor de aire (Molinari)
207. Verde llano
208. Leves instrucciones (Del Guercio)
209. Los elefantes
210. Un pájaro te sostiene
211. En las cúpulas

All songs by Luis Alberto Spinetta except where noted otherwise



    * Emilio del Guercio: Bass, Organ, Piano, Effects, Vocals
    * Rodolfo García: Drums, Percussion. Vocals
    * Edelmiro Molinari: Guitars, Organ, Vocals
    * Luis Alberto Spinetta: Guitars, Piano, Vocals

On 19 December 1970, Almendra (a.k.a. "Almendra double album") was released, along with a new single taken from it. The 2-LP set included only traces of the unfinished opera but was full of songs that previewed what the members of the group (noteworthy Emilio and Edelmiro) would do next. Although Luis Alberto Spinetta was the main composer of the first album and most of the singles, it was clear that his fellow musicians had their own ideas as well. The brilliant double album is, thus, pretty heterogeneous. The music is more complex and has much organ and guitar playing.

Side A begins with "Toma el tren hacia el sur" featuring a great Edelmiro guitar solo. Next to the short and simple "Jingle", a Molinari powerful guitar composition ("No tengo idea") follows. "Camino difícil", written by Emilio, would fit in any Aquelarre album. The steady rock of "Rutas Argentinas" (a very popular song on live shows), the dark "Vete de mí, cuervo negro", and another two Molinari compositions: "Aire de amor" (advancing the Color Humano style) and the excellent "Mestizo" completes this side. Side B features the chirping hard-psycho 14-minutes-long "Agnus Dei" and the cute "Para ir". Side C includes the powerful "Parvas", "Cometa azul", "Florecen los nardos", -all with great guitar work- and Del Güercio's rhythm ballad "Carmen". Side D begins with "Obertura" (obviously the ill-fated opera’s overture), followed by the country-folk "Amor de aire" and "Verde llano" (both written by Edelmiro). This last side continues with "Leves instrucciones", a nice tune sung by Emilio & Luis Alberto and the outstanding "Los elefantes". "Un pájaro te sostiene" -a rock number written by Del Güercio- and the great Spinetta’s guitar oriented "En las cúpulas" close this highly recommended album.

Almendra - 1969 - Almendra

Almendra
1969
Almendra

01. Muchacha (ojos de papel) - 3'08"
02. Color humano (Edelmiro Molinari) - 9'12"
03. Figuración - 3'33"
04. Ana no duerme - 2'47"
05. Fermín - 3'20"
06. Plegaria para un niño dormido - 4'03"
07. A estos hombres tristes - 6'01"
08. Que el viento borró tus manos (Emilio del Guercio) - 2'38"
09. Laura va - 2'53"

All songs wrutten by Luis Alberto Spinetta except where noted otherwise

 Emilio del Guercio: Bass, Flute, Vocals
 Rodolfo García: Drums, Percussion, Vocals
 Edelmiro Molinari: Guitars, keyboards, vocals
 Luis Alberto Spinetta: Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
 Rodolfo Mederos: Bandoneón

Recorded at studios T.N.T., Buenos Aires between April and September 1969
Released the 29th of November 1969


Almendra was formed in 1968 after the break up of three teenage school groups, Los Sbirros, Los Mods and Los Larkins. The initial rehearsals were held at Spinetta´s house in Belgrano (an upper-middle class neighbourhood of Buenos Aires). By mid-1968, they met producer Ricardo Kleiman, who signed them for a single. Kleiman was the owner of an important clothing shop -Modart- and ran a radio show -Modart en la Noche/Modart at Night- that aired the latest editions of beat and rock music of the world.

On September 20, 1968, "Tema de Pototo" (a.k.a. "Para saber cómo es la soledad") b/w "El mundo entre las manos" was released. "Tema de Pototo" is a beautiful beat ballad about a friend they thought was dead. Both sides feature orchestral arrangements by Rodolfo Alchourrón, a request by the producer. By the end of the year, "Hoy todo el hielo en la ciudad" with a great fuzz guitar work by Edelmiro, hit the stores. The b-side features "Campos verdes" from which a promotional film was made.

Almendra played during the summer at the beginning of 1969 in Mar del Plata a beach city 400 km south of Buenos Aires. Their debut in Buenos Aires was on March 24, at the DiTella Institute, the avant-garde cultural centre of the 60s. Almendra spent the rest of the year performing at different venues, until September 21, first day of Spring and Student’s Day in Argentina, when they played at the Pinap Festival. Pinap was the name of a beat magazine, and this Festival was the first major event of Argentine rock.
Meanwhile, the group was recording their debut album. An odd event marked the completion of it. Spinetta had drawn an original enigmatic face character for the cover. Days afterward, the record company told the boys that the drawing had been lost, so they were planning to use a photo of the group instead. Obviously upset, the musicians looked for the lost drawing and eventually found it discarded in the garbage. Spinetta had stayed up all night reproducing his original artwork and took it to the record company the following day. The company offered no excuses the second time. The extraordinary debut album was finally released on November 29, 1969. Along with the infamous drawing, it included an insert with lyrics and technical information. The black & white back cover pictured the group live at the Pinap Festival.
By the end of 1969 the record company released a new single featuring "Tema de Pototo" and "Final". The latter was originally scheduled to end their debut album, but could not make it due to time length limitations. The group wanted "Gabinetes espaciales" to be the a-side of this single but RCA wished to promote "Pototo" instead. "Gabinetes..." was eventually included on the compilation LP Mis conjuntos preferidos (RCA Vik 3836).
In early 1970 another single was released with two songs from the album. Meanwhile, Spinetta was working on a highly ambitious -though not original at that time- project: a rock opera about mankind’s inner search. But while they were working on this new album the group split.




Along with Manal, Vox Dei and Los Gatos, Almendra is one of the pioneer groups of the Argentine rock in Spanish and with a proper concept and personality.
Their first eponymous album (1969) is an exercise that mixes the psychedelic pop with some acoustic, peculiar element, and a pretty personal style in general.
The influences from The Beatles, and the general English psychedelia of the 60s are there, as a base to develop something different, which seen minutely, does defer considerably from those British bands, in mood and in spirit.
In the Buenos Aires of 1969, all these young rock groups (in those times the usual term was "pop music"), were seen like a bunch of aliens: some strange hippies commonly labeled as revolting and junkies. The normal people didn’t listen to this, the normal people listened to the correct starettes who appeared on TV, singing mellow love songs, with cute hairdos, and correctly shaved.
This Almendra, that for these times is utterly innocent, and full of candor, for the Buenos Aires of 1969 was something considerably strange, too irregular, and closer to the marginal than to the musical.
The production of this album is as low budget as it can be imagined, the sound is technically deficient, not bad: old; though all the bands of the time and the place sounded this way or even worse.
BMG Argentina released it on CD, including early singles, some of them being even better than the album songs itselves, and enhanced up to 20 tracks.
"Que el viento borró tus manos", "Fermín", the beautiful "Ana no duerme", "Figuración", "Color humano" and the ballad "Muchacha ojos de papel" are among the standouts, in an album whose music is pretty creative, not brilliant, but yes pretty melancholic, with fine poetry, guitar and vocals by Luis Alberto Spinetta, well supplemented by Rodolfo García on drums, Edelmiro Molinari on guitar and Emilio Del Güercio on bass.
Listened today, 40 years later, Almendra leaves a sour-sweet taste in the listener, talking about a Buenos Aires in distant past tense, too distant.