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Greco Bastián — With a Little Hell from More Friends
(Azafrán Media AP 2451, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-11-06

With a Little Hell from More Friends Cover art

It was a little over a year ago that we reviewed a couple of releases by Mexico’s Greco Bastian, With a Little Hell from My Friends and the EP Naked Zeuhlito Lindo, the latter something of a “How It’s Made” with respect to the creation of the full length album. Both of those were available as downloads only, which is how this latest effort started life, though in recent weeks It was picked up for release on CD by the esteemed Mexican label Azafran Media, which means it will soon be available through Musea (France), Disk Union (Japan), and other distributors around the globe. As before, Bastian composed and arranged all eight tracks at hand via programming, but he plays no instruments on the final resulting album (he claims he plays no intruments, but knows how they should sound), instead the pieces are played by his band The Villagers of the Legendary Town of St. Never of Ever (rhythm guitarist Armando Lagarda, drummers Antonio Garcidueñas, Miguel Saenger, and Alonzo Arjona, bass guitarist Hey Figueroa, and xylophonist Gerardo Ramlop). In addition, there are at least two dozen guest players that appear on this track or that, including Markus Reuter, Alan Benjamin, Matt Hollenberg, Patrick Gauthier, Tatsuya Yoshida, Salvador Govea, Anthony Béard, Bernard Falaise, Rémi Leclerc, Paolo “Ske” Botta, Craig Walkner, Shawn Persinger, Håkan Almqvist, The Mercury Tree, Emanuele Sterbini, Vincent Sicot-Vantalon, and many more. To find out what guests play on which tracks, that information is detailed on Bastian’s Bandcamp page at the link below, but to be sure there are so many guests that they won’t be appearing too many times throughout the course of eight cuts. The album opens with “Kobaïan Call to War (Part One),” and closes with “Part Two” of same, a noisy and repetitive powerhouse of madness that would seem to fit well on any avant-progressive or zeuhl album recorded in the last 40 years, though at only two to three minutes each one could certainly wish for more! “4009. The Mezking” is a funky number that features all three members of The Mercury Tree alongside Markus Reuter, Paolo Botta, and Shawn Persinger, and for my money is one of the best pieces on the entire album — it also seems to feature some uncredited wordless vocals, but that could be Botta working some keyboard magic. “Blacamán, the Bad One” is a trippy mashup of xylophone, multiple guitars, keyboards, and percussion, an intense chaotic that might be what Frank Zappa would have sounded like if he had tried his hand at zeuhl; with “Cosmetology” Falaise (guitar) and Leclerc (drums) from Miriodor play, along with Botta on keys and Figueroa on bass, for an intensely wild ride that will leave the listener breathless, sounding like way more than just four guys. All taken, if you’re ready for a scorching avant-prog pounding, WALHF More F will certainly deliver on multiple levels.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Tatsuya Yoshida, Govea, Markus Reuter, Patrick Gauthier, The Mercury Tree, Bernard Falaise, Shawn Persinger (Prester John), Håkan Almkvist (Orient Squeezers), Roz Vitalis / Compassionizer, Anthony Béard, Ske (Paolo Botta), Sterbus, Greco Bastián

More info
http://grecobastian.bandcamp.com/album/walhf-more-f

 

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