Album Of The Week - Curandero - Arás

[Kittaan]

This is probably outside of most of your comfort zones, but I hope you'll give it a listen. I loved this from the first play and it's still in rotation.

 




Curandero - Arás

Sep 24, 1996

71:18

 

1. Arás  - 9:38

2. River  - 11:51

3. Segue  - 5:06

4. Embrujada  - 7:58

5. Man of the Shadows  - 11:24

6. Brenda  - 4:39

7.   Flirtatious  - 5:22

8. Suenos Inquietos (Restless Dreams)   6:59

9. Once upon a Time  - :35

10. Enshalla (By the Grace of the Creator)  - 7:46

 

Miguel Espinoza - Guitar, Arranger, Vocals, Associate Producer,

Ty Burhoe - Percussion, Arranger, Tabla, Vocals, Tamboura, Producer, Sarangui, Mastering, Mixing, Frame Drum

Kai Eckhardt-Karpeh - Bass, Fretless Bass

Béla Fleck - Banjo

Eric Thorin - Fretless Bass (one track: River)

 

[UndKeineZwEier]

Too much bass.  Pass.

[Kittaan]

UndKeineEier said
Too much bass.  Pass.


Not sure if that's a joke.  

 

Kai Eckhardt is a bad mofo on the bass.  It's one of my favorite things about this album and he shines on it.

[Ravenpig]

Just when I think these AOTW can't get any more unpredictable, well, this comes along.  Not at all what I thought it was going to be.  Having said that, I've heard this type of music before.

 

It's very chill, nice little calm, relaxing jams.  Not a single song on here is even close to being bad, but on the flip side not a single song is even close to being great either.  I think that's honestly the best way to describe this.

 

Anyway, as I said earlier, I've heard this type of music before.  It sounds like the music "nicer" restaurants play to set an atmosphere.  That may sound like an insult but it's been to my experiences that those places are usually pretty damn good.  There's this one place in my hometown that I could swear maybe even played this album (probably not but you know what I mean).

 

6/10

[basejumper]

Pretty good. Although at times I felt as if the musicians were playing different songs at the same time.

 7.5

 

[Kittaan]

basejumper said
Pretty good. Although at times I felt as if the musicians were playing different songs at the same time.

 7.5

 


There was a good amount of improvisation on these sessions, which might account for that.  However, the level of musicianship is quite high, and I don't get that feeling... definitely no train wrecks.

 

@ RP - Thanks for checking it out and posting (one of the few so far).  I kinda get the atmosphere comment, and I often throw this on while travelling or hiking, etc.  But as mentioned above, the level of musicianship puts this far above anything I've heard in a typical restaurant for background music... maybe I'm not hitting the right restaurants.  

[Ravenpig]

Yea obviously the musicianship is much better on this than on restaurant type music.  Sorry if I came off sounding like that.

[Kittaan]

This week's AOTW was kind of a bust.  

 

Looks like most didn't get past the first few tracks.  

 

[Ravenpig]

I was one of the two! 

 

Geez guys it's album of the week not first few songs off an album of the week.

[not tyson]

I've been too busy at work to listen

[The Boss]

Me too.

It's not like these threads are going to disappear. I have plenty of time to listen to it and reply.

[basejumper]

Ravenpig said
I was one of the two! 

 

Geez guys it's album of the week not first few songs off an album of the week.


 

I was the other...

it's not that hard to open it up in a new window and let it play while reading 4theye

[hellboy]

I'm putting my hand up as being on the too busy list as well.  Been spending a lot of time in the office in the last two weeks, which isn't very condusive to listening to new music.  I will listen eventually...

[Kittaan]

I wasn't trying to make anybody feel bad, just pointing it out since I had the statistics.  I was wondering why so few comments and then remembered I could check since I upped it.  

 

There was also a lot going on with Tool being on tour.  As Crow pointed out, you can check it whenever, I'm still interested to hear your comments, good or bad.

[petemasterpete]

welly, well, well, Kittaan... I finally found time to listen this eve also.  I love this sort of stuff.  Although I'd not even heard of it prior, it was well suited to prepping and eating dinner and some mellow out time with the kids this evening.  It certainly would be fantastic tunes for a nice dinner out with a good bottle of wine, etc.  Granted it's nowhere near the same style, I'd compare it to my thoughts on Van Morrison that in the right setting/mood, it is perfectly fantastic.  That being said, I'm not sure I could just listen to it for the sake of listening to it on regular rotation.  I'd have to be somewhat occupied or hepped up on goofballs (the latter of which is mostly out of the question at this point) to truly sit and appreciate it.  I definitely found a few of the longer tracks at the beginning lingered a bit too long and could have been rethought as individual tracks... and the really short guitar track absolutely annoyed me.

 

Musically and stylistically it's solid, but the subjective bastard in me is not allowing me higher than a 7/10... which is damn good on one, first time listen in my book.

[snazzlefrass]

Makes me want to put up a tent in the middle of the woods and live there for a while, beating on drums. I don't think I want to do that, but hey the music is pretty relaxing. Give it a listen when I'm flying, see what happens.

[The Boss]

Did someone say "perfect study music"? I love this kind of stuff, as should be obvious from my AOTW choice.

http://magnatune.com/artists/curandero

While they all look like paedophiles, I really appreciated the talent and musicianship. And I don't think this was too left-field for this forum, dude - this place is full of stinkin' hippies.

7/10, I guess? I don't know. Unless something is either a 9/10, 10/10 or the complete opposite end of the scale, I never know how to rate. It didn't knock my socks off, but I'll be adding it to my rotation, in any case.

Thanks for sharing.

[hellboy]

Listened to it this evening.  It's ok, but not really my thing.  Not going to give it a rating, as it would really have no value.

Emotion is as big a part in music for me as instrumental skill is, and instrumental music generally has little emotion to me.  I'd probably enjoy this (and other instrumental bands) live, but on record it's nothing more than elevator music to me.

[Ettan]

This is muzak music to me. 

[Busty McCracken]

First 2 songs didn't do a great deal for me. Respect the talent, but wasn't overly grabbing me. 3rd song has kicked off though & definitely has my attention. Track 4 will be a make or break for me methinks..

[Busty McCracken]

My mean craving I've had all day for some Baroness ended up winning. In the right mood can see myself digging this though. Will hopefully come back to it in near future.

[markuspoop]

Yeah, it was okay.  Obviously these guys are good musicians and all.  Just not fully my cup of tea.  I half expected to be in some outdoor cafe in Central or South America and these guys just come up and jam while I eat my enchilada.

[UndKeineZwEier]