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Chercán — Chercán
(Bandcamp no#, 2025, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-05-30

Chercán Cover art

Over the years, I’ve encountered a number of South American progressive rock bands, and in general, I find them to be creative and original entries into the genre, with distinctive twists on the style pioneered primarily by English bands in the 70s. Chercán is a new group, though members have roots in such previous bands as La Desooorden and Homínido, which I’ll admit to no familiarity with. In any case, this debut album is a fine effort, full of great songs and superb playing. You might hear occasional hints of King Crimson or Porcupine Tree or The Mars Volta, but on the whole, it’s an enticingly original sound. The band members are Martín Peña (vocals, guitar), Simón Catalán (bass), Roberto Faúndez (guitar), Matías Bahamondes (saxophone), and Rodrigo González Mera (drums, percussion), and they’ve recruited guests on violin, viola, and cello. Peña is a strong singer, and Bahamondes provides great lead lines on his saxes. The arrangements take advantage of the tone colors available, and sometimes backing vocals take up a role that would be handled by keyboards in most bands. My favorite track of the nine on the album is probably “Caen las Hojas Blancas,” which has some tasty angular lines, wild sax and vocals, and dissonant guitar chords. This is one intense tune! They follow it up with “Kalimba,” which starts quietly with the titular instrument, but does build in power while mostly staying away from dissonance. The strings make their entrance on the brief “Desolación (En),” which leads into “Tiempos Paralelos,” which has a dreamy mood morphing into a percussion-heavy ending. The two-part “Relato de una Obsesión” brings in more percussion as well as a tambura-like drone and a Phrygian-sounding mode (at least for parts of the piece). The string arrangement places the piece somewhere between Arabia and India. Chercán is an excellent debut album, a promising start for a band that’s sure to appeal to fans of progressive rock.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Chercán

More info
http://chercan.bandcamp.com/album/cherc-n

 

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