Perfume De Mujer - Variaciones En La Cuerda Vol. II Y III

Year of Release: 1996
Label: Luna Negra
Catalog Number: CDLN-02
Format: CD
Total Time: 69:07:00

The Cuban duo Perfume De Mujer combines two different releases onto one CD here. One contains the five songs from the La Ultima Cena release, recorded live on 22nd January '95; whilst the next seven songs have been recorded live on 25th June '95 as Aquarium.

Each time it concerns the combination of Abel O. Perez and Orlando Bernal who are assisted by several friends. Due to the repetitive character of the songs and the monotonous singing, a song like "Coma Coma" gets a very dark atmosphere associated with it although we have to give full marks to the violin of Pedro Pablo Pedroso. That violin will be present throughout this album giving it an almost Zeuhl-like flavour. It certainly becomes very beatiful once the flute is introduced in a song like "Espectadores." Maybe the native singing becomes rather annoying, yet it adds to the originality of Perfume de Mujer which kind of sounds like Ozric Tentacles without the spacey ingredients here. By means of Alejandro del Valle's piano, a song like "Cocuyo" then again sounds nice and jazzy and if only a bit more percussion would be added and some "easy" guitar then we would find ourselves on Santana territory.

The "Aquarium" songs have been recorded with a tight "cast" which adds to the homogenity of the band. A big negative element however remain the weak vocals of Abel O. Perez. "Novelo" tries to step into the footsteps of Peter Gabriel flirting with new wave. It's mainly the use of a drum machine which has us refer to the term new wave. Perfume de Mujer certainly isn't a bad band because there are plenty of interesting things happening yet they should use a real drummer and that superb violinist Pedroso. On this album however the duo delivers some half-baked songs. Maybe they should sit down, have a drink and discuss what direction to take before they hit the record button once again.

Tracklisting:
Histeria (3:04) / Coma Coma (7:35) / Espectadores (11:30) / Cocyo (6:58) / La Ultima Cena (5:12) / Uso Comun (4:43) / Novela (3:41) / Don Nadie (8:17) / Revolver (5:01) / Cabez De Bruja (4:17) / S?maforo (5:15) / Aquarium (5:34)

Musicians:
Abel O. Perez - voice, vocoder, sequencer, drumcomputer, organ, bass
Orlando Bernal - guitars, sequencer

Discography:
Variaciones En La Cuerda Vol. II Y III (1996)
Pollo D'Granja (1998)
El Monologo De El Caracol (2000)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin CU

Added: September 1st 2000
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

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Language: english