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Tantra - Holocausto

Artist:	Tantra
Title:	Holocausto
Label:	Musea Records FGBG 4289.AR
Length(s):	43 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1979/2002
Month of review:	[05/2002]

Line up

To-Zé Almeida - drums, clarinet, tubular bells, marimba, percussion
Americo Luis - bass
Manuel Cardoso - guitars, sitar, lead vocals
Pedro Luis - synths, keyboards, mellotron
with
Tony Moura - electric guitar, lead vocals
Pedro Mestre - keyboards on 6, choir on 2

Tracks

1)	Om	8.47
2)	Holocausto/Ultimo Raio Do Astro Dei	10.53 MP3 or RealAudio
3)	Zephyrus	2.50
4)	Talisma	8.44
5)	Ara	4.54
6)	Pi	7.29

Summary

A rerelease of the second album of this Portugese band. And yes, like so many other prog bands from the seventies, the band exists again and is preparing a new album.

The music

Om is the opening track. It starts quietly enough with sensuous cosmic sounds and spacy effects. After two minutes, the music gains in tenseness, soon after to be followed by typically seventies, hasty progrock. The music has something of jazzrock in it, quite dynamic and such. The sound is typically seventies as well, both in the datedness of the keyboards as well as the overall production which is not too clear. Main reference at this point is Camel I think (Moonmadness era), but mainly the band has that typical Mediterranean touch (including South-America). The vocal parts are all sung in Portugese and sound okay, but of course I can't tell you much about the lyrics which are said to be rather idiosyncratic. After the first vocal part, the music winds down again and we have a relaxed piano part. The vocal part that follows is dreamy and vague. The song also harbours an extensive keyboard solo with wild meandering melodies.

The main track is the title track Holocausto/Ultimo Raio Do Astro Dei. It opens with grand majestic guitars and keyboards. One might be thinking of Genesis here or maybe Ange. The overall sound is quite dark with male choirs and tenseness in the music. The vocal parts are manic, and you might be thinking of a variant of Hammill in VDGG here. Then the singer takes it easier again, in a good vocal part, with appealing and memorable vocal melodies. Note that some parts sound very much like the title song of the first King Crimson record. The instrumental continuation is varied: sometimes melodic with a strong bass presence and somewhat Arabic in melody, sometimes fast paced jazzrock. Especially the drummer gets to have his say here, interjecting the music with almost random outbursts. I do wonder who is playing that sax here, oh wait it is listed as clarinet. Well, you could have fooled me.

Zephyrus is a rtaher short track opening with sitar and keyboard effects, in addition to throaty Tibetan singing. Then the other instruments join in for a powerful and plodding piece of dark, mysterious rock. Very nice.

On Talisma the sound is clearer, friendlier. More in the jazzrock vein, the vocals however are rather melodious and friendly. Halfway, the music gains momentum and the vocalist gains fire. I like the way the piano is used on this track, but some of the parts do little to me, they are too standard progressive. The guitar playing owes quite a bit to Genesis. Although I cannot say I like the track as a whole it does contain some very worthwhile parts such as when around the seven minute mark the bombast gets back into the music: the melody on guitar is grand and the tubular bells are used to good effect.

Ara is a very melodic piece with clarinet and guitar, mainly. Drums and keyboards are also present, but more in the back. The vocal parts are rather soothing and accompanied by piano and acoustic guitar. The changes halfway is one typical of Genesis. The music gets to be quite playful here, think of I Know What I Like...

Pi is a thematic piece, and a strong theme it is, the strongest on the album. The guitar is more in a jazzrock vein. During the track it fights its duels with the rather bleepy sounding keyboards. Time for some rest as we move into a contemplative piano part. A nice change over. The keyboards continue to sound a bit strange. Drums and guitar take over the music soon after with a more thematic approach, the vocals are however quite poppy. The songs ends with the theme it started with.

Conclusion

Time has caught up in a big way with the music on this album. Although there are good ideas here, I find the whole lacking in coherence. The music is not easy, yet at times they can be very melodious. Lots of changes and breaks, but not all of them to good avail. Main references are Genesis and King Crimson (both the older kind) with a bit of jazzrock thrown in and plenty of piano throughout. I do wonder what happens when the qualities of the band are transplanted into this new millennium. All in all, not bad, but like I said lacking consistency and suffering from datedness.