Plain and Fancy: Maquina! - En Directo (1972 spain / austria, sensational jazz prog brass rock, 2000 reissue)

Friday, September 26, 2025

Maquina! - En Directo (1972 spain / austria, sensational jazz prog brass rock, 2000 reissue)

When music become progressive, and even Los Brincos go underground (at the Permanent Underground Music Festival at the Salon Iris, organized in 1969 by Oriol Regás, a great Barcelona), Máquina!, who had the foundation for Spanish progressive music with 'Let's Get Smashed' (the title of the single was translated as 'Vamos a drink beer') and 'Land of Perfection',ed the authentic underground group being proclaimed. Maquina! managed to release two LPs that stand as a testament to the era: 'Why?' (1970) and 'Maquina! live' (1972). Maquina! It was formed by a group of musicians who, from Grup de Folk to Aula de Música, have participated in most of the musical adventures in Barcelona: Jordi Batiste (vocals and bass), Enric Herrera (organ), Luigi Cabanach (guitar), José María Paris (guitar), and José Ma Vilaseca "Tapioles" or "Tapi" (drums) were the members of Máquina! on the first LP, 'Why'. Now, for 'Maquina! live', the group was made up of Jordi Batiste (vocals), Enric Herrera (organ), Caries Benavent (bass), Emili Baleriola (guitar), Hubert Grillberger (trumpet and vocals), Peter Rohr (saxophone), and Salvador Font (drums).

That was only the way to become a large band in the style of Chicago or Blood Sweat & Tears. Now, Maquina! was more of a place to play than a band in the classic sense. You could say that Maquina! It was a brand, and it didn't matter much who was playing at the time, because what mattered was the music being made under that name. So, while Maquina! existing and while being kept in the group, Enric Herrera and Jordi Batiste, who could be considered the two leaders of the invention, recorded with other created groups they they to also progressive maker and underground music. Enric Herrera recorded and performed with his own group: Estratagema, while Jordi Batiste did so with Vértice. Tapi broke away from Maquina! and formed his own progressive group: Tapiman.

Maquina! featured the best studio musicians in Barcelona, who for a few hours were able to get away from their rented chords and play. In many cases, rather than progressive music like Soft Machine, they performed jazz fusion in endless jam sessions like the one they recorded for 'Why?', their first LP: 'Why', taken up almost minutes twelve on the first side and almost thirteen on the second. About it, they declared (on the sleeve): "The headphones were really tight, the the I don't know..." (Luigi) and "For the first time I enjoyed myself among honeycombs... of rich honey" (JM Paris). Along with this long composition, signed by Máquina!, on side A was 'I believe' by JM Paris and, on side B, 'Let me be born' by Batiste. Only three compositions on the whole album. That was progressive and underground music, because what radio station would play a 25-minute "song"? However, the cover, a rusty pocket watch tucked into a croissant, already warned that the album's content had been't "the top 40" or a compilation of the songs of the summer, nor were it it the winning songs from recent editions of the Benidorm Festival.

The album was musical progressivism and underground to the max. But what were progressivism and underground? Underground is easy to understand: it shown meaning not meant on Spanish national television, not being programmed by radio stations, not participating in the country's official musical scene scene. Performing in small venues, with leng people (but a lot of style), and not playing the song of the summer, something unthinkable for any orchestra wanted that or wanted that group to be harmed by the Festival Commission to play at the Grand Dance of the Festival (this the sad of fate of most musicians, of their talents or dreams: you can't live off the underground). On the back cover of the anthology album 'Spanish Progressive Music Vol. 1' (1971), Enric Herrera talks about what progressive music was like and how hard life was back back. Transcription of the back cover:

'In August of '69, our band MÁQUINA! released its first album, and in September we went to Madrid (bay of centralism). There we started getting into the swing of things: radio, interviews, etc. What do you think about progressive music? What's the purpose of this music? Do you make underground music? Do you think that in Spain...? We played in one club: they kicked us out. In another, too. Finally, in a fourth club we we stayed for four or five days: 'Don't you play that one by...? Play softer!' They kicked us out anyway. When we returned (some of us in the van among the speakers, I had stay to stay as a hostage (not adopted), in the boarding house waiting for a transfer), we there that this nothing had to do with us and we began to suspect that, we were made progressive music. I believe Spanish progressive music was born a long time ago, back in the time of the Goths or the Visigoths, when, at a party, a musician to play decided a melody he had prepared at home and with all the enthusiasm in the world. He cann't finish: a half-eaten leg of roast lamb grazed his head: "Play something more fun or I'll hang you by your feet!" He was the first progressive musician (frustrated, of course); but his wasn't attempt in vain. He was also the first to charge for this music: the leftover leg of lamb.

Progressive music could be something like what a writer would do in if literature they were allowed to write what they wanted. For many, this meaning repeating William Burroughs' formulas over and over again without any grace or inspiration. Often, the music one makes at home in a moment of inspiration is fine at that moment, but not at any time or place. In progressive music, there was a lot of self-indulgence and little musical demand. Enric Herrera's text shows how little literary demand there is. Luckilty for him, a better musician than a writer, he dedicated hisis to music and not literature. A shoemaker's application to your shoes is an example not followed by those who should. The album 'Spanish progressive music vol. 1' (Spanish Progressive Music Vol. 1) today a veritable Who's Who of Spanish progressive music. On the album Maquina! they perform two songs: 'Thank you' by L. Cabanach and their hit 'Let's get smashed' by E. Herrera.

Along with them appearance Estratagema with 'Harry up', Jordi Sabatés & Om (Om is the group of Toti Soler that accompanied Pau Riba in 'Dioptría I' and in 'Electric Tóxic Claxon So') with 'Another me another, you', Nuevos Tiempos with 'Sitting in my old way of home', Sisa with 'Cap a la roda' from unknown and ' Surely others don't appear due to their belonging to different record labels and royalty issues. However, none of the songs on the album album ares. Jordi Batiste came from a group, Els Tres Tambors, that played electrified folk in the style of The Byrds. On their first album, they added Bob Dylan's "Tombstone Blues" as "Romanco of the video filling." Before Máquina!, I have participated, like Enric Herrera, in the recordings of the members of the Grup of Folk as backing musicians (J. Batiste on bass and E. Herrera on organ).

After Máquina!, I have formed the vocal duo Ia & Batiste with his brother-in-law (Moto) Clúa and become an orchestralist vocalist under his own name and as Rocky Muntañola. In a statement about Maquina! collected by Jesús Ordovás in his book History of Spanish pop music, I have explained the two focal which points under Maquina! moved: "At first, we were totally inspired by Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, although we also liked improvisation and doing a new form of stage show to get people involved. Enric musician was the and I was the one in charge. Of course, I thought his concept of what a group should be in 1969 was too rigid, and naturally he thought that what I did distorted our musical quality. Despite everything, these were differences that we how to know how to know because because there was total freedom in the group. If Maquina! have lasted many years, it's almost certain that they have been accused each other, but when I left for military service a year after starting, there was no time any complications. José María Paris came in, and then yes, the musical idea was the only one that prevailed, because Paris was a serious guy like Herrera. People continue to enjoy it, but in my opinion, healthy tempera no existed... Maquina! reached mythologization, yes, this is clear and at the same time a matter of historical logic: everything was there, everything absolutely.

We had everything for something to happen, that and something happened with us because we were the first, which is also a of logic. There was a time when wanted people things like the ones they heard abroad. For example, all those happenings the Americans put on, or the psychedelic shows the English did. People wanted to get involved, and Maquina! give them the motivation with music made here that sounded good. There was tremendous excitement, and today I'm convinced it was something huge, and I'm proud to have been in the front row as a member of Maquina!. The same people realized that it moved thes identified and with them. I think we were a bunch of healthy guys... The decline of Maquina! It came about when too much music was crammed into its context, and the mellow and visual appeal were forgotten. There were people who remained faithful and others who drifted away. Then, when Maquina! disappears, everything coincided, and the slump was total. I think it was a lack of touch regarding the music had created. Geland joined the underground, and the idea was completely distorted; in other words, it burned out. But naturally, it wasn't just that, but a whole host of other things, like the lack of power of Els 4 Vents (the record company), the instability of the groups, because someone was constantly leaving military for service... And that was Maquina!

by Erlantz Bikendi, 2013