During my last holidays in Spain I was not only
pleased to find no less than seven releases by Ñu I didn’t have, I was
mostly pleased to see the band had released a brandnew studio album in 2002
although actually composed in 1996. Curious to hear whether at all José
Carlos Molina’s Ñu stil merits to be called the Spanish Jethro Tull I sat
down by the pool, a glass of chilled local white wine in the hand, ready to
be taken on a new musical ride. Having been around long enough, Molina
certainly knows how to approach the recording of an album productionwise
hence the perfect sound of the new album. The opening for ‘Mazmorra’
certainly is a work of art taking me in my dreams right to the centre of
South-America before medieval horns introduce the actual song. As with
Asfalto in the seventies (another popular Spanish prog outfit, JB), most of
the material will be mainly metal influenced with enough flute interventions
to keep all of us happy. ‘Tenebros’ is even VERY heavy metal with more
attention for Pedro Vela’s guitars and the son of Molina (he’s also
called José Carlos to make things easy !) on drums. ‘Gracias’ begins
the way we all love before turning once again towards a rather mediocre
metal offering which however holds some violin parts to remain in the spirit
of things. But then thank god the Ian Anderson in Molina wakes up and does
exactly what we expect him to do ! Things even get better during
‘Sacrificio’ when flute and violin merge into the kind of material we
all want to hear. “Songs from
the wood” anyone ? Coz’ indeed, when Molina senior tackles the flute his
style of playing comes very close to that of Mr. Ian Anderson. The Spanish lyrics and the often heavy (horses
?) guitars turn the music into pure Ñu music with of course a definitive
blink of an eye towards Jethro Tull. ‘Hada’ returns towards the acoustic
approach introducing cello, acoustic guitars and the omni-present flute
before all storms break free and Molina junior unleashes his drums upon us.
The final three songs Molina leaves his son at home taking care of the drum
section himself making the endresult certainly less metal oriented. In that
respect ‘Refugiados’ is like a breath of fresh air. Apart from bass and
guitar, Molina (the ‘old’) takes all instruments for his account during
‘La boca del infierno’ which enables him to have more control over the
arrangement. This gives Molina the chance to return to the acoustic setting
of flute and strings right towards the end. A perfect ending to an otherwise
doubtful album. Those who already know about Ñu I would
recommend an album like “Cuentos de Ayer y de Hoy” rather than this one.
Those who might already have some Ñu material at home I would recommend the
live recording “La noche del juglar” rather than “Requiem” but hurry
as only 1000 numbered copies have ever been pressed whilst the album already
dates from 1999 ! Reviewed by John 'Bobo' Bollenberg |
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