If they’re really done — that is, if the hiatus that Atavismo have newly announced will stick permanently — then I’m singularly sorry not to have seen the band. The Algeciras-based heavy psych and progressive outfit made their debut with the 2014 album Desintegración (discussed here; review here), and their most recent offering was the single, “Psicopatías del 2021” (premiered here), a reinterpretation of a track by the associated project Mind! that appeared on the Spinda Records 7″ compilation Grados. Minutos. Segundos., sprawling and limited as that was. Their most recent standalone release was 2018’s Valdeinfierno EP (review here), which followed their second LP, 2017’s Inerte (review here).

So you can see maybe it’s been a while, but I have no hesitation in telling you Atavismo was a special band, even never having seen them play. The Algeciras-based four-piece contributed significantly to the progressive course of Spanish psychedelia in the last decade, and the telltale blend of folk and heavy psych influences can in turn be heard in a slew of regional acts who’ve taken cues at least in part from what Atavismo did on their first two albums. I somehow doubt these people are actually done making music. Guitarist/vocalist Jose “Poti” Moreno has a pedigree that dips back to the seminal rock outfit Viaje a 800, while drummer Sandri Pow and bassist Mat both played with Moreno in Mind!, yes, the same band Atavismo covered on what’s now their swansong single.

I don’t know the circumstances behind the disbanding, but given the creative track of the members of Atavismo, the fact that Viaje a 800 were flirting with doing shows again, on and on, there will be more music. I’m bummed I didn’t see them play, but I’m awfully glad they played, and I’ll maybe always feel a bit like they called it quits too soon ahead of what would surely have been a joy of a third album. So it goes.

Their announcement, translated from the original Spanish, follows here. It appeared on social media:

It’s often said that a withdrawal time is a win.. And that’s how we all feel about making this decision.

No one knows what the future will hold for us, but since the only thing we live is the present, we went down here… We’ve decided to park Atavismo indefinitely…

We are still family but we need to be accountable to ourselves and our personal well being.

Thank you so much for being a part of our world, and for your support, as we always say, this would not be possible without you.

A big hug to all.

Tags: Algeciras, Atavismo, Sad shit, Spain

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 at 5:26 am and is filed under Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.