Poseidótica, Crónicas del Futuro: Tales of Time and Space
Fierce in its commitment to progressive atmospheres, the space-hued third album from Argentinean instrumentalists Poseidótica, Crónicas del Futuro, doesn’t linger on its ideas and varies widely from track to track, but is able to manifest an overall sensibility as well. The four-piece of guitarists Hernán Miceli and Santiago Rúa, bassist Martín Rodríguez and drummer Walter Broide (also of Los Natas) is joined on Crónicas del Futuro by synth expert Ernesto Romeo, who adds much of the space rock feel to the already semi-psychedelic riff-led material. Swirls and ambient noises enhance the mood of songs like opener “Elevación” and some of the shorter pieces on the album like “Otra Fuga Incierta” and the closer “Alunizar,” but between these cuts – which are more substantial content-wise than interludes, if not much longer – Poseidótica confront mostly guitar-led material that varies in terms of structure and execution and never really feels like it’s missing anything for the lack of vocals. “Elevación” is the longest work at 5:18 (immediate points for it being the opener and longest track) and sets the expectations high for what’s to come over the subsequent eight songs. Given the current climate in South American underground heavy rock, one might expect an instrumental unit like Poseidótica to engage in lengthy jams or put their focus on fuzzy tones and thickened bass, but that’s not what’s happening on Crónicas del Futuro. Rodríguez does an excellent job helming the jazzy sway of “Los Extraños,” but the album winds up being diverse enough that its head is never committed wholly to anything other than the band’s own creative will, which proves considerable.
As such, there are various influences that show up throughout the album. One can hear a bit of the last Los Natas in the forward momentum of “La Resistencia,” and “Cyberpunk,” at just 1:11, has a thrust that lives up to its name. However, partnered next to the calmer or at least not as rushed “Xantanax,” it shows the kind of diversity from which Crónicas del Futuro gets its flow. As Miceli and Rúa lead the second half of “Xantanax” away from its Latin rhythms with classic heavy metal riffing, the proposition becomes even more complex. It’s the record’s great achievement that Poseidótica are able to make it coalesce into an engaging whole. With instrumental music that doesn’t have vocals to guide a structure – and all the more so with artists who have a progressive bent – it’s too easy to get sidetracked into self-indulgence, and that’s not what’s happening here. Although Romeo’s contributions lead to sweeping passages of atmospherics, nothing lasts so long as to really feel overdone, and that includes the opener, where the elements of the band’s sound are perhaps best combined. Where “La Resistencia” leans more on the guitar and “Otra Fuga Incierta” seems to roll off of Rodríguez’s bass line, “Elevación” brings everything together in a way that even “Dimensión Vulcano” – which is arguably the most prog rock of the tracks included on Crónicas del Futuro – doesn’t. That’s not to say the rest of the album doesn’t live up to what’s initially promised, just that one imagines that when it came to structuring the tracklist, “Elevación” was put at the head because it introduced the new ideas Poseidótica were gearing toward that perhaps didn’t show up on their past offerings, 2008’s La Distancia and 2005’s Intramundo (both also Aquatalan). Again, the variety of influence here plays into a different kind of satisfaction than would be if the band made everything sound just like first cut.
Crónicas del Futuro is difficult to parse in that the band proves able to stop and turn almost in a measure’s time to a new idea, but going along with those changes is part of what makes it such a listening experience, so while one could sit for a week and analyze, it’s almost beyond the point. Poseidótica make complicated craft sound natural. They have a heavy rock base that they build from progressively and even a song like the acoustic “Confines del Caos” fits well between the surrounding “Los Extraños” and “Cyberpunk” because by the time more than half of the record has passed, there’s enough flow established that the band can open the gates even further and move as they will. On a superficial level, Crónicas del Futuro doesn’t sound groundbreaking, and maybe it isn’t, but it’s well made and well constructed, and it rests between genre lines as only an album made by artists with genuinely little to no concern for such things can. Being my first experience with the band, they sound mature and confident without having their ideas come off as overbaked. Bass nerds will want to follow Rodríguez’s runs alongside Broide in the rhythm section, and there’s enough happening stylistically here that I’m not left longing for the verse/chorus sensibility that vocals might bring, as much as there are occasionally sections where they might fit. Heavy rock heads will enjoy the familiar semi-desert riffing in songs like “La Resistencia” and “Dimensión Vulcano,” and the flourishes and stylistic counterpoints that Poseidótica works into their sound gives an excellent sense of individuality that makes Crónicas del Futuro all the more successful, moving swiftly into and beyond the confines of genre.
excellent band, excellent album, excellent review.
good trip.