[Click play above to stream Ararat’s Volumen 4 in full. It’s out this week through South American Sludge with limited vinyl to follow on Argonauta Records.]

When Buenos Aires’ Ararat rode into the light on their third album, Cabalgata Hacia la Luz (review here), in 2014, the band seemed to drift away. Fronted by former Los Natas guitarist/vocalist Sergio Chotsourian — who played bass and piano in addition to guitar — the band’s advent with 2009’s Musica de la Resistencia (review here) had been a revelation of creative expanse, finding new character in Chotsourian‘s songwriting and a denser tonality in the new trio. 2012’s II (review here) grew broader still, incorporating longer tracks for all the more a sense of immersion in the increasingly atmospheric craft. Cabalgata Hacia la Luz pulled back from that somewhat, as by 2014, Chotsourian — aka Sergio Ch. — had begun exploring the solo work that would consume much of the rest of the decade for him creatively even as another rock trio, Soldati, began to take shape and move toward their own debut. Though some of Ararat‘s songs appeared in redone form as solo pieces and vice versa, the trio that had settled on the lineup of Chotsourian, guitarist/keyboardist Tito Fargo and drummer Alfredo Felitte (who also joined Soldati for a time) seemed to be done. Obviously this impression was mistaken. Sort of.

Ararat circa 2022 is reignited as a duo, with Chotsourian and drummer Jorge Araujo as its lone occupants, and Volumen 4 marks the group’s first outing in eight years, collecting six songs across 36 sometimes plodding, sometimes reaching minutes, its ideas seeming to find a summary in the penultimate “Thor Hammer,” which layers in keyboards along with the bass and drums, and is willing to both roll out the record’s most elephantine instrumental progression and long, patient stretches of minimalist rumble. It is a different sound than anything Ararat have put forth to-date, and fair enough since it’s a different construction than the band has ever had before. Still, as “Fiebre” lurches to life at Volumen 4‘s outset backed by synth or theremin swirl before shifting into its bass/drum march of a verse, there are of course some recognizable elements, namely Sergio Ch.‘s gritty vocals, sometimes layered, and the style of the progressions he and Araujo are bringing to life. Compared to Los Natas — which was at the time the only other comparison point for Chotsourian‘s output — Ararat was more doom in tempo and attitude, but also more exploratory, with piano pieces and other experiments fleshed out as full-band realizations.

To some degree, Volumen 4 continues this ethic, but it doesn’t feel like anything so much as a new beginning. Whether it is or not isn’t something that can be known at this point, but what Ararat do as “Fiebre” chugs through its second half and the shorter, speedier “Microcosmos” sets its tinny snare drum toward more stamping punctuations is to reset the mission and general purpose of the band in the first place. Perhaps it’s fair that after eight years and a remaking of the band that Volumen 4should come across as a debut, bolstered in that regard by the willful rawness of its production and the digging-in-and-seeing-where-it-goes vibe of “Microcosmos” or the accordingly lumbering “Serpiente,” which follows.

Those who might wonder why Chotsourian didn’t simply start another project for these songs — that is, make it another band instead of calling it Ararat — might find an answer in “Serpiente,” which finds Araujo‘s loose swing connected in thrillingly tenuous fashion to the slow bass riff. Even without the additional keyboard or guitar layers of II or Cabalgata Hacia la Luz, it is like the bones and muscle of what Ararat was before, and in the second half, as the drums drop out behind the vocal echoes and standalone bassline, it’s a feel that will only be familiar to those who heard the band in their prior incarnation.

And to anyone who didn’t? One assumes it’s that much easier to make the leap into the shifts in approach without the context of the past records. “Birdy” picks up somewhat faster than “Serpiente,” playing off the alternating tempos of “Fiebre” and “Microcosmos” earlier, and features a standout riff, farther back drumming and a fuller sound with Chotsourian‘s vocals out front. Drones and more maybe-theremin return at the finish — could be a Space Echo or some such — but the shift into “Thor Hammer” is smooth enough to feel purposeful. The aforementioned pre-closer begins quiet but announces its intention toward sonic fullness with a snare hit to begin its full-on roll at about a minute in. It is as immersive as Ararat get on this fourth long-player, and that’s thanks in no small part to the keyboard line that drones out alongside the bass and drums, adding melody to the early going, dropping out as Araujo and Chotsourian dutifully march toward through the midsection, and returning for much of the second cycle until the drums also depart, leaving the bass to hold sway until it too seems to disintegrate ahead of the more immediate launch of “Mandy” at the finish.

One assumes there’s some relation to the high-body-count Nicolas Cage 2018 feature film, since Chotsourian makes a kind of sinister hook out of the repeated line “You’re about to die,” but it’s even more notable that the lyrics to the closer are in English. That may or may not be a first for Ararat — I think it is — but Sergio Ch. has always been comfortable departing Spanish periodically in his various projects, so it could hardly be called out of line. After “Thor Hammer,” the pattern of Volumen 4 would suggest it’s time for something faster, so naturally “Mandy” instead pushes deeper into the low-end abyssal zone, its lyrical threat met by a lurch that enhances the impression and feels tied to “Serpiente” earlier, capping the album without more fanfare than that, and keeping the raw sensibility that defines so much of what’s happening throughout Volumen 4 intact even while swapping one language for another in another, admittedly less subtle than some, turn.

For being relatively unexpected, this fourth Ararat LP is not at all unwelcome, and whether it’s a one-off or a new start for the band, what matters is that it continues to push against expectation for what they do. These many years later, that’s only worth appreciating more as a consistent factor in the band’s persona.

Ararat on Facebook

Sergio Ch. website

South American Sludge on Bandcamp

South American Sludge website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

Buenos Aires-based heavy rock trio Manthrass are gearing up to release their second album, Mapa Estelar, in March via Buscando Records and Kenai Records. Whether it’s the deep-toned fuzzy rollout of the opening title-track or the classic-minded heavy blues start-stop swing of the leadoff single “Paso Firme” that follows, it does not take long for the Argentine three-piece to distinguish their sophomore outing from its predecessor, 2015’s Blues del Destino (review here). To be sure, as cuts like “El Luchador” punch home their forward-minded riffing and the post-Clutch groove of “Seguir es Ganar” lands itself in a dudely sing-along chorus of “ooh”s, there’s still plenty of burl shared from the first record to this follow-up, but the level of presentation has shifted entirely, and where Blues del Destino had a rawer bite to the guitar tone of Mariano Castiglioni and Ángel Rex Rizzo‘s bass and the vocals — duties shared between them with backing from drummer Federico Martinez — cut through dry and less assured, Mapa Estelar engages a smoother approach all around, and Manthrass sound confident in their craft and righteous in their execution as a result.

To record Mapa Estelar, the band returned to producer Damián Colaprette, and that consistency is important, since it signals a directness of intention in terms of their growth — i.e., it’s not just that they had somebody different helm their record. They didn’t. Granted, Mapa Estelar was tracked at a different studio than its predecessor, but with the level of progression from the prior batch of songs to the smoothness of the balance in “El Ermitaño,” where Rizzo‘s basslines come through so crisply and excellently balanced in bolstering Castiglioni‘s guitar leads as Martinez rolls the track along with rhythmic fluidity, the development very obviously isn’t limited to presentation. Manthrass have grown as songwriters as well. And to be sure, while Mapa Estelar has a smoother, more cohesive feel on the whole, there’s no corresponding lack of impact to the material, as the Megadeth-meets-Sabbath verse-chorus transition in “Como un Volcan” shows in answering the initial push of the opener, Manthrass brazenly adapting the trappings of heavy metal to their own contextual purposes, and in just four minutes, affirming the identity the debut began to craft as an idea based around sonic growth, a pervasive lack of pretense and a penchant for hooks that come through regardless of any language barrier that may or may not exist for a given listener. That is to say, ignorant as I am, I don’t speak more than the faintest hint of Spanish, and I still have these songs stuck in my head.

Naturally, this is to Manthrass‘ credit entirely, but neither is Mapa Estelar necessarily limited to a single take in terms of style. The bluesier fare of “Seguir es Ganar” and “Paso Firme” is met head-on by the more rocking push of the uptempo “El Ermitaño” and the seven-minute jamming instrumental centerpiece “La Eterna Lucha del Gris y el Verde,” and the expansion continues late with the penultimate acoustic interlude “Bei Tempi,” which is under a minute long in the tradition of a quick Iommic bit of finger but still showcases a drive toward adapting more diversity of sound and bringing a sense of full-album flow to Mapa Estelar rather than simply presenting it as a collection of tracks. That difference is perhaps the defining factor of Manthrass‘ second long-player, but it’s no less crucial to underscore the lack of self-indulgence in their work overall. There’s nothing showy about Mapa Estelar on a performance level, and all the band seems to ask of their audience is that occasionally the nod turn into a headbang along the way, which given the energetic charge they put in from “Mapa Estelar” to the raucous-but-still-controlled finisher “Lejos” is by no means a chore. Beyond that, Castiglioni, Rizzo and Martinez seem bent on having a good time and grooving out as they make established classic tenets their own, and the quality of their output in so doing makes listening to Mapa Estelar an infectious pleasure in the front-to-back listening experience. The first record had potential, this one confirms it.

Take a listen to the premiere of “Como un Volcan” below. Mapa Estelar is due out this March on Buscando Records and Kenai Records. Quote from Castiglioni, album info and links follow.

Please enjoy:

Mariano Castiglioni on “Como un Volcan”:

I wrote the lyrics for “Como un Volcan,” and when Angel was recording voices he also add some sentences. To us “Como un Volcan” means that strength that we feel in the creative process, that inner force that everybody feels. The riff is mine also, reminds me something between Slayer and Howlin’ Wolf — heavy blues, man!

The time at [Zar Estudio] was amazing. The studio looks like a small cave in the north of Buenos Aires, but at the same time was very stressing, at least for me. The difference with Blues del Destino is basically the production, the songs, the time. We work with a drum DR this time. I recorded with five different guitars, and Damian Colaprette was there all the time with us.

“Como un Volcan” is a good song to represent the album, we are proud of it, for me sounds a little bit a NWOBHM — I love that era — with our touch, of course.

MANTHRASS – Como un Volcan (SINGLE)
From “MAPA ESTELAR”
New album (2018)

MARIANO CASTIGLIONI, guitar and vocals
ÁNGEL RIZZO, bass and vocals
FEDERICO MARTÍNEZ, drums and backing vocals

Recorded, mixed and mastered by DAMIÁN COLAPRETTE at ZAR ESTUDIO
Artwork by MARIANO CASTIGLIONI
Design by Agustin Croxatto
Produced by DAMIÁN COLAPRETTE

BUSCANDO RECORDS

Manthrass on Bandcamp

Manthrass on Thee Facebooks

Manthrass on Twitter

Manthrass on Instagram

“Tres de Mayo” was a bit of an outlier from Ararat‘s 2012 second full-length, II (review here), which was more defined by the elephantine tonality and plod of “Caballos” or “La Ira del Dragon (Uno),” though not at all out of character for the Sergio Chotsourian-led trio overall. The closer on II, “Tres de Mayo” found Sergio collaborating with his brother, Santiago Chotsourian — the two would compose the soundtrack to the film Los Salvajes together, on which “Tres de Mayo” also closes — in an spirit not entirely dissimilar to “Dos Horses” from Ararat‘s 2009 debut, Musica de la Resistencia (review here), that song also built out on a theme established in a track of the same name on the final offering from Sergio‘s prior band, Los Natas, 2009’s Nuevo Orden de la Libertad (review here).

That’s a somewhat complicated line to draw, but the point is that by the time Sergio and Santiago Chotsourian got around to “Tres de Mayo,” they were already well acquainted to the form. The brothers’ collaboration would hit its peak to-date with the Los Salvajes soundtrack, first issued in 2012, but Santiago may have also contributed to Sergio‘s 2015 solo outing, 1974, as well, I’m not entirely sure. In any case, though Ararat released another album in 2014, the stunning Cabalgata Hacia la Luz (review here), the trio, whose live incarnation is completed by guitarist/keyboardist/noisemaker Tito Fargo and drummer Alfredo Felitte, have a new video for “Tres de Mayo” that, if I read the translated info right, also uses footage from Los Salvajes. Perhaps it’s intended to coincide with a CD release for the soundtrack through Sergio Ch.‘s South American Sludge Records imprint, which is reportedly impending, or maybe it was just something put together off the cuff. You won’t find me arguing either way.

Video and the aforementioned translated info follow. Please enjoy:

Ararat, “Tres de Mayo” official video

ARARAT NEW VIDEO “TRES DE MAYO”

Official video from Ararat – “Ararat II” disc and Santiago and Sergio Ch. – “Los Salvajes” soundtrack.

Produced by Sergio Ch. and Patricio Claypole. Video made by Andres Estrada, Alejandro Fadel and with fragments of the film Los Salvajes. Driven Alejandro Fadel.

“Tres de Mayo is a song conceived from the piano and guitar creole for disc Ararat II, recorded and performed by Sergio and Santiago Chotsourian at Death Studios.

Ararat on Thee Facebooks

Los Salvajes OST on Bandcamp

South American Sludge on Thee Facebooks

Now, Google’s translation matrix may have played hell with some of the copy in the quote below from current Ararat and former Los Natas frontman Sergio Chotsourian — who also has a new band called Soldati that will be worth keeping an eye on — but the point you want to take away from the whole thing is that Sergio Ch.‘s solo album, 1974, has gotten a limited release on CD through his own South American Sludge imprint and Oui Oui Records. The album continues to build on the personal themes that Ararat‘s 2014 outing, Cabalgata Hacia la Luz (review here), put forth, drawing on different interpretations of some of the same material to give a companion feel from one release to the next while still covering raw, untrod ground.

I continue to await the day when Sergio Ch. puts up a webstore with international shipping, but if you can track down the limited CD version in the meantime, it’s worth the effort. Sergio Ch. also has a new video for “Las Piedras” from the album (a different incarnation was on the last Ararat as well), and you can see that under the album info below, which came down the PR wire:

“1974” produced artistically by its author, is a release of Oui Oui Records South American Sludge Records.

A limited edition CD 13 songs that reflect concepts of life, redemption and exchange format transformed into work.

In the words of Sergio Ch:
“1974 is the story of my journey. A meeting with myself, with my ghosts, my demons. So it was lightning in the dark to start riding towards the light”

“In 1974 the concept was that the songs remain the most crude and simple as possible, with fewer elements to define them. No recording quality, but color takes sought. Therefore Creole and acoustic guitars and piano They took great character in the main audio. As the voices, poetry and audio was most important for this record. Almost like a search from the lo-fi. Some of the songs were the first shots of some issues that then They formed part of the album Ararat “Ride into the light”. Others are part of my history, my experiences and radical changes that I made in the last years of my life. The dark and heavy as possible rock is intended, in the manner and form in which the message of the song, either with a note and a word can convey that manifests itself. It does not take a double bass and 10 distortion pedals to make battery. The dark and heavy is the message same, in this case the change, the break and how to get ahead in life no matter what happens.”

https://sasrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SASRECORDSARGENTINA/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Nataspress
http://www.ouioui-records.com/

Sergio Ch., “Las Piedras” official video

Argentina’s rich history of heavy and psychedelic rock spans decades, from the early chichas through and beyond modern stonerisms and exploratory movements. Put together by Stoner Argentino Independiente and South American Sludge, the new compilation Riffs y Psicodelia Vol. 1 brings together 11 practitioners from around Argentina, their sounds varied between aggressive riff-led push and more sprawling jams, to give a sense of where the country’s scene is at now and where it might be heading in the years to come.

South American Sludge is, of course, the imprint helmed by Sergio Chotsourian, former guitarist/vocalist of Los Natas and current bassist/vocalist of the more experimental Ararat, and in addition to his own solo material the label has stood behind releases from Los Devas, Katon and others. Chotsourian has been selling releases through mail order, though it’s a little difficult — probably less so if you speak Spanish — what has been physically released and what hasn’t, but it’s hard not to anticipate the day a webstore is launched with orders available for international shipping.

Until then, Riffs & Psicodelia Vol. 1 is a name-your-price download, as you can see below:

All these bands are part of the first volume of the South American sludge compilation, which we call riffs & Psychedelia… With you…

South American Sludge Compilation:
Riffs & Psicodelia Vol. 1
[S.A.S. 013]

Tracklist:
01 – Alud – Pinto Piraña
02 – Arido – Desert
03 – Reyes En Jaque – Viajar (Viento)
04 – Vanprasth – Ante La Infeccion
05 – Delirium Extremus – Caminante Espacial
06 – Atardecer De La Consciencia – Ciudad En Gris
07 – Serpiente de Montaña – Ya Ves
08 – Era De Acuario – Sos Un Rio
09 – V.U.E.L.O. – Cosmos Tu
10 – Mil Tormentas – Mil Tormentas
11 – Matacerdos – Desierto De Leones

Masterizado En Estudio Sonidero Vintage
Artwork Por Corba (Nicolas Corbalan)
Producido Por Stoner Argentino Independiente

South American Sludge Records, Argentina

https://www.facebook.com/stonerargentinoindependiente
https://stonerargentinoindependiente.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/SASRECORDSARGENTINA
https://sasrecords.bandcamp.com/

VA, South American Sludge Compilation: Riffs & Psicodelia Vol. 1 (2015)

So here’s an awkward moment for you: I was standing in back of The Purple Turtle at last year’s Desertfest in London, chatting with a couple of the rather sizable film and promotional crew that Cultura Tres brought with them from their native Venezuela (actually they were in Banda de la Muerte, from Argentina, and touring with the band, but I’m creating a narrative, so bear with me here) for the gig and their subsequent touring. Also there was their manager, Vania, in town from Bulgaria. Quite an international assemblage we made. One of the dudes along with Cultura Tres starts taking CDs out of a bag. Thinking he’s setting up a distro with a pile of CDs on the merch table, I’m immediately stoked out of my brains to see the cover above for what has turned out to be Los Natas‘ swan song release, 2011’s Rutation — an album that wasn’t released outside Argentina and one that at that point I’d already been trying for the better part of a year to get my grubby mitts upon.

“Holy shit!” I said with my usual amount of play-it-cool subtlety, “I’ll take that one.” Dude gave me the “uh…” look and some pitying soul explained to me they weren’t selling those, they’d just brought them from South America for Vania. Feeling as much the fool as ever, I explained the trouble I’d had trying to sort out an encounter between myself and Rutation, which Los Natas released through their own South American Sludge imprint and eventually skulked away to down my weirdness in oversized Newcastles and take pictures of Cultura Tres, who were shooting footage for what would later become their “El Sur de la Fe” video. One of those times where I just have to hang my head and go, “Boy, is my face dumb.”

Actually seeing the disc had the effect of supercharging my search, but to no avail. I tried Oui Oui Records in Argentina, which has distributed Los Natas‘ stuff in their home country since 2003’s Bee Jesus box set a decade ago, as well as a bevvy of worldwide distros North American, South American and European, eBay, Amazon sites from around the globe, etc. At this point, not to toot my own horn, but if I want to find a CD chances are I know where to look. Rutation did not want to be found.

I wouldn’t say I gave up on it, because I have many late-night eBay searches that would indicate otherwise, but it became apparent to me that Rutation was just one of those records I’d have to wait until it found me, rather than the other way around. Sorry, but if I can get a copy of Colour Haze‘s Chopping Machine (and I did), nothing’s totally unattainable, it just needs time. I waited for my time, and lo, right around the Xmas holiday a note comes in on Thee Facebooks from none other than Vania that she’s got a copy of the album for me.

Bless my miserable soul. I felt like I was waiting to adopt a puppy while I stood in line at the post office to pick up the package, sent from Bulgaria (for some reason Eastern European packages always require a signature). My stomach was tight with apprehension, but when I finally got the envelope and opened it, there was the disc. I swear to Robot Jesus there was a glow around it, and maybe it was leftover Xmas music, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t hear a choir singing. It went in the CD player before I even turned the car on, like it would play anyway before I turned the key. Some things just become an immediate priority.

In my reading about the album beforehand, I knew the recordings themselves were old. Rutation was put to tape on a mobile unit in Buenos Aires in 1997, so it would’ve been after Delmar was recorded but before Ciudad de Brahman — well into the time when they were still Natas, before the Los was added — the very heart of their most desert rocking period. Some of these tracks showed up on 1999’s Unreleased Dopes, and according to some sales I’ve seen on eBay, the band had cassettes of Rutation with them when they toured the States in 2000, but the 2011 issue is the first official CD release that I know of, and I couldn’t have been more stoked to finally get to hear it.

Most of the tracks can be traced in different incarnations to Delmar or Ciudad de Brahman. Cuts like “Carl Sagan” and “Meteoro 2028,” arranged here as a desert-delic closing duo, and “Alohawaii” were excellent on the latter record and prove so again here, but the highlight of Rutation somewhat surprisingly is “Adolescentes,” a track I’d never really given much of a second glance on Ciudad, but which shines surrounded by “Siluette” (which I’ve yet to trace to another Natas release) and “Brisa del Desierto,” leading to the aforementioned closers. When they want to, Natas lock into fuzz riffing unrivaled in my experience, and you can hear that in “Polvareda,” but the airier parts of “Paradise” show that even at their rawest, there was room in the band’s approach for more than just riff-led Kyuss-isms.

All told, Rutation is just over 31 minutes long, but it still shows the character of what was then a young trio, and for the kindness of the gesture on Vania‘s part that got the disc from South America to Eastern Europe to New Jersey, I just had to write on it. It’s a gift I know I’ll appreciate for years to come, and if Los Natas really are done, then I consider myself all the more fortunate to have been able to get a copy of their last statement as a band.