Agamenon - Todos Rien De Mi (1975)
Agamenon - Todos Rien De Mi (1975)
Album: Agamenón - Todos Ríen De Mí (Remastered Edition)
Released: 1975 (2007)
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Gnosis Rating: 8.83
Guerssen - GUESS-CD005
First time on CD for this stupidly rare Spanish psych album originally released in 1975. The album is split between English and Spanish vocals. Emphasis on male/female vocal harmonies. Some heavy blasts of fuzz crop up and there is some organ burbling around in the background. - Laser's Edge
Hippie group from Madrid, this is no doubt the most acid psychedelic rock album recorded in Spain in the 70's. It is their sole album, originally released in 1975 on the Explosion label and a very rare and collectable item. No one knew anything about the group members until now, it had been even rumoured to be some Argentinian guys living in Spain...but no, the group was formed by 2 Spanish female and 4 male and the brainhead was Carlos Garcia, who sadly passed away not long ago and to whom this reissue is dedicated.10 tracks, 8 of them in English and 2 in Spanish, all originals and fantastic; there's lots of heavy acid fuzz guitar here, probably the wildest fuzz recorded in Spain ("Todos rien de mi", "Send me" or "I need money"), and also some great sunshine psych-pop ("Cuco go fly", "Al salir el sol"), and it's all very well packed with some of the best multi-vocal harmonies you can find in a Spanish record ever. A truely fantastic album that we strongly recommend!!! This first ever reissue comes with an insert with some never-seen-before pictures and infos about the band, plus a repro of a very rare band poster. Dig the cover artwork too!!! CD has no poster but a booklet with pics and infos. Slimcase edition. - green-brain-krautrock.de
In 1975, when the only album by Madrid based band Agamenón was released, nobody bought a copy. Thirty years later, it's one of the most sought after records by psych/prog collectors worldwide, it's featured on one of the famous "Record Collector Dreams" books by Hans Pokora and Japanese collectors spend outrageous sums for an original copy on eBay.
Originally released in 1975 and produced by the legendary Alain Milhaud, 'Todos Ríen De Mí" is one of the obscure Spanish records that sold poorly and sank without trace. The music contained on the album has been labelled as "progressive" but it has nothing to do with prog or sympho-rock: "progressive pop" would be a more suitable description: late Beatles, Mamas & The Papas & Jefferson Airplane could be seen as some of the influences.
The main creative force behind Agamenón was Carlos Garcia. Carlos started to sing at eight years old and around fourteen he formed an acoustic group along with his sister Carmen and a friend from the school choir named Dulce Ma Ayala. They played cover versions from some of their favourite groups like Mamas & The Papas and Beatles. In 1969, a young guitarist named Javier Moreno heard them singing "Free advice" by Mamas & The Papas, fell in love with their sound and joined them. A sister of Carlos & Carmen came with the perfect name for the band: Agamenón. This early line-up also included Meli and Enrique Medina.
In 1971, producer Félix Arribas (from famous Spanish band Los Pekenikes) goes to one of the band rehearsals in Madrid and offers them to record a demo. For some reasons, Arribas looses interest in the project and that demo never sees the light of day. Some months later, a couple of guys from another Madrid group. Los Zares, join Agamenón. They are Andrés on drums and Jose Ramón on keyboards.
One day, thanks to an add in the newspaper in which some producers look for young talents, the band is signed to Top Records (a "pop" sub-label from Spanish Columbia) and they are offered to record a single. Due to the obligatory Spanish militar service, Andrés y Jose Ramón are forced to leave the group: Arturo Terriza and a german guy named Ralph Schneider are the new members.
When the band goes to register their name, they find an ugly surprise: the Agamenón name is already registered and owned by none other than producer Félix Arribas. They decide to rename themselves "Tálamo" but the guys at Top Records say that "Álamo" sounds more "commercial". The Álamo single is released in 1973, it features a couple of nice & catchy popsike tracks, "Fué un sueño" & "Nighty Night", but the band are not very happy with the results because those songs were originally sung in english and the producers forced them to change the lyrics to Spanish.
Álamo appear in Spanish national television and get involved in a bizarre situation with famous journalist José Luis "Mr. Eurovision Contest" Uribarri: he arranges an interview with them but due to management problems the band don't appear at the date. A week later, Uribarri writes a not so very nice note about them in famous Hello! magazine...the band can't believe it when they see it!
In 1973, famous Spanish pop singer Micky (ex Micky & Los Tonys) offers Ralph, the keyboard player, to join his band for some summer shows across Spain. So Ralph leaves the group and Juan José Moreno, brother of Javier, joins Alamo for a brief time. Soon after, a new keyboard player named Vicente Andujar joins the band. So, the definitive line-up that will record the Agamenón album is born: Carlos on bass & vocals. Carmen & Dulce on lead vocals, Javier on lead guitar & vocals, Arturo on drums & vocals and Vicente on keyboard & chorus. They decide to leave off the Álamo name and come again with the Agamenón one. The band rehearse very hard every day playing Carlos & Javier compositions written in english (the legend says that he had written nearly 500 songs back at the time!). Carlos and Javier spend countless hours writing arrangements and creating vocal harmonies for the new songs. Carlos always showed first to Javier his naked songs and then Javier added his own ideas and arrangements. Vicente, the last one to join the band, also created some harmonies and arrangements.
Soon they start to play in famous clubs from Madrid like M&M and Consulado and in other cities from Castilla & Galicia. They start to develop their own sound, different than the other Spanish bands of the time, an explosive mix of brilliant songwriting, top notch male-female harmony vocals and hard psychedelic guitars. And let's not forget the wild & groovy look of the band, specially from their two female vocalists. Carmen & Dulce, who were the perfect example of the Spanish "hippie chic" look of the time like no others.
The fearing obligatory militar service appears again, this time over Javier. So, a new lead guitarist joins the band in replacement: it's a freaky afro red-haired guy called César Fornés. César, famous for his wild guitar playing style, is a fanatic of fuzz & wah pedals who comes from a classically trained family of musicians.
In 1975, famous belgian producer Alain Milhaud, who was living & working in Spain at the time and was involved with the bizarre Poplandia label, received a call from his friends Alfonso & Lucas Sáinz from Los Pekenikes saying he should check out a new band called Agamenón. He goes to a band rehearsal and offers them to record an album for his new Explosion label. So, the recording sessions for 'Todos ríen de mi" take place at the brand new Explosion studios in Madrid. Milhaud instantly falls in love with César's guitar sound but there are some tension with the rest of the group, as he forces them to sing in Spanish some of the songs. 'Todos ríen de mi" was one of that songs and is the one selected for a 45 release. It's a perfect example of the Agamenón sound, full of intricate male-female vocal harmonies and loud fuzz-wah guitars. The flipside of the 45 is a very different track, "Happy Marriage Eleonor", a soft-pop number with nice harmony vocals that Carlos first composed singing with his bass but he had no chords. So Javier came with the final chords, guitar riff and vocals.
The rest of the album features eight more impressive and well crafted tracks, all of them fuelled by the unique songwriting tandem of Carlos & Javier. "I need money", "Wooden tears", "Blow up the candle" and "Send Me" also feature some of the most amazing & furious guitar solos ever recorded in a Spanish album of the time. "Blow up the candle" contains a killer guitar riff by Javier, who also created the vocal harmonies. Along with these acid-rock tunes, there were some tracks that showed the softer side of Agamenón. As Javier recalls: "Happy Tuesday" was first ai rockin' track but it evolved into a softer tune afte we added the organ. "Al salir el sol" was first titled "Hot Sun", all the guitar melody was written by me and Vicente came with the organ parts"
And I can't forget a personal fave, "Cuco Go Fly", a little sunshine-pop oddity.
The picture from the album back cover, showing the band in full hippie fashion, was taken in a little village from Albacete. Dulce will always remember that day because her case with all her costumes was stolen and never found. 5000 copies of the album were released but it seems nobody saw a copy back at the time. Some reasons could be non-existent promotion, bad distribution and not so much interest from the Explosion label: It's the end for Agamenón.
Thirty years later, talking with Carmen & Javier, they remember with sadness how some of the best Agamenón tracks were never recorded: "Embajadores", a track they used to play live, was their homage to the neighborhood where they lived. 'The minister said was one of their most innovative songs: "we never got to play this track with the full band, Carlos and I did it on acoustic form and wrote the lyrics at my house but we never finished it..." Javier recalls.
Thanks to this Guerssen reissue, you'll not have to spend big money to listen to one of the most creative & unusual albums ever recorded in Spain. - Alex Carretero
Carlos Garcia - bass & vocals
Carmen Garcia - vocals
Dulce Ma Ayala - vocals
Javier Moreno - lead guitar & vocals
Arturo Terriza - drums & vocals
Tracklist:
1 Todos Rien De Mi (03:44)
2 Al Salir El Sol (03:08)
3 Please Little Man (02:48)
4 Happy Marriage, Eleanor (04:08)
5 Send Me (03:23)
6 Blow Up The Candle (Apaga la vela) (03:28)
7 Cuco Go Fly (Cuco te vas) (04:48)
8 Happy Tuesday (03:55)
9 Wooden Tears (03:25)
10 I need Money (03:24)
