The complete (hopefully) Los Natas Part 1

A couple of statements that some may take as exaggeration, but in my opinion simply are not: first of all, Los Natas are one of the great rock n roll bands, ever, period.......secondarilly, they are likely, pound-for-pound, the most unappreciated and unknown great band, here in the USA, due to (of course) their non-English language (there are SOME English vocals, more Spanish than English) recorded output. If you have deprived yourself of this fantastic band over the years, and, in particular if such is due to the absenece of English language vocals/lyrics, you are doing your self an almost indescribeable disservice, if you are a fan of stoner or psychedelic rock.......PLEASE do yourself a favor and get to know this stuff, for some of you it may be like unlocking a new universe.

Ok, obviously I enjoy the music of Los Natas. They hail from Argentina, and consist primarilly of
Walter Broide (drums, vocals, sequences, keyboards, bombo leguero, trumpet), Sergio Chotsourian (guitar, vocals, keyboards, flute, laud), and Gonzalez "Crudo" Villagra (bass, bombo leguero, laud, charango)....they have also utilized a good many collaborating musicians over the years in their very deep, varied, complex music.

They debutted with "Delmar" in 1998.....it's a fairly straight ahead Kyuss tribute, I'd say, with a little bit of Dozer thrown in  and a few spacey, jamming touches.....it's a solid album, pretty even all the way through, perhaps the best track being the short (less than three minute) "1980".....not their most creative work, but a decent starting point for the uninitiated.

The following year they would release "Ciudad de Brahman", which takes the debut and builds on it....adding spacey psych tones ala Colour Haze (hmmmmm, Colour Haze, another great band I have never featured, make note to self) with the desert-surf sounds of Kyuss.....very little vocal work here and what there is is nothing spectacular, but this is a fine album. Trust me.

As these hombres participated in a lot of split EP's and compilation-only tracks, sorting out their career is a little sticky, I'm thinking of putting all that stuff, along with the boots, in part two ('m telling ya I have a LOT of these guys to share)....I will go next with the odds and sods collection, "Unreleased Dopes", some earlier tracks that is pretty much for fans, not of the quality, quite, of the first two albums, but still has some good moments.

2002's "Cosario Negro" is their first TRULY great album, on which their unique sound begins to take off.....as hard rocking as, say Monster Magnet, while retaining and developing the trademark jazzy touches. Fine album, the title track and "2002" are highlights, but this is a 4.5 star album that one listens to in its entirety.

Their next effort is the two-part "Toba Trance", which abandons the heavy guitar rock in favor of almost creepy, laid-back, liquid jamming style, a complete stylistic change and another step in their journey. "Toba Trance I" contains but three long tracks, each over tweleve minutes long.....slip this on to understand the clear difference between "stoner metal" and "stoner rock"......"Toba Trance II" is a companion piece, another pair of long, fluid tracks mixed in amongst some more conventional tracks.....again, both volumes of "Toba Trance" are essential in understanding/appreciating this fine band.

In 2004 they released the 2-disc set "Munchen Sessions" basically four long suites of around twenty minutes each, some divided into sections, some not......to their credit, actually, they continued to develope into their more "free rock" (as they call it) style, there are till fine hard-rocking moments, but this is maybe something like Pink Floyd meeting Colour Haze, if you could fathom that. Again, recommended.

They heavied the sound back up for 2006's "El Hombre Montana", turning the guitars back up and toning down the multi-instrumentalism a bit.....this is not as good as, say, "Cosario Negro", but if you are a fan of the band (like myself), you will find yourself enjoying this one as well.

I guess the next stop we will  make in this somewhat complex career is the two disc compilation "El Universo Perdido Los Natas", notable for the inclusions of "Born To Be Wild" and "Paranoid", which are, shall we say, "different", and easilly answer the question of why they rarely attempted English vocals.

In 2009 they released what I beleive to be thier last proper album, I think they still remain active in various projects....."El Nuevo Orden de la Libertad" is yet another completely worthwhile album (really, they've never had a REAL clunker), it does rehash a good bit of the ideas they have used before, but they have had so many ideas, and they are one of those bands like Pink Floyd, or Senser, Tool, that, for better or worse, NEVER threw away a single idea.

These should get ya started.....for tomorrow, a bunch of EP's, split albums/Ep's (in actuallity I HATE splits, they were so common in the early stoner era and I never got the point, but these guys had a few and we'll get to those as well.....we have a metric ton of live albums, some compilation-only tracks (they have appeared on some of the greatest stoner comps such as "Sucking in the Seventies", among others.....we'll see but I MAY have to run this to three parts (I don't think so) I have so much of their work.......

OK, you can see I enjoy this band. I realize they are pretty much unknown the USA except in stoner rock circles, I would really really really really really appreciate comments from both new listeners and the already initiated. Enjoy the NCAA tourney today, and tomorrow, because as we all know NCAA Tourney and Los Natas go together just like chicken salad and severed human fingers.

DELMAR-01 Samurai/02 1980/03 Trilogia/04 I Love You/05 Soma/06 Mux Cortoi/07 Delmar/08 Windblows/09 El Negro/10 Alerto Migre

CIUDAD DE BRAHMAN-01 Carl Sagan/02 Meteoro 2028/03 Tufi Meme/04 La Ciudad De Brahman/05 Siluettle/06 Brisa Del Desierto/07 Paradise/08 Alohawaii/09 Adolescentes/10 999/11 El Resplandor/12 Rutation/13 Polvareda/14 Nadha

UNRELEASED DOPES-01 Asteroides/02 Division Miami/03 Viento Dorado/04 Corriendo En La Montania/05 Highway Sun/06 Meteoro 2028/07 Brisa Del Desierto/08 El Resplandor/09 Alohawaii

COSARIO NEGRO-01 2002/02 Planeta Solitario/03 Patas De Elefante/04 El Cono Del Encono/05 Lei Motive/06 Hey Jimmy/07 Contemplando La Niebla/08 Bumburi/09 Americano/10 El Gauchito/11 Cosario Negro

TOBA TRANCE I-01 La Tierra Delfin/02 Que Rico/03 Die Possime

TOBA TRANCE II-01 Tomatito/02 Traicion en el Arrocero/03 Matogrosso/04 Humo de Marihuana/05 La Sepa/06 Que Rico (Live)

2004 MUNCHEN SESSIONS DISC 1-01 El Negro/02 El Cono Del Encono

2004 MUNCHEN SESSIONS DISC 2-01 Corsario Negro Loco/Traicion en el Arrocero/Humo de Marihuana/02 Tomaiten (Jamm Aleman)/Que Rico (Live)

EL HOMBRE MONTANA-01 El Bolsero/02 Amanecer Blanco/03 No Es Lo Mismo/04 Humo Negro Del Vaticano/05 La Espada En la Piedra/06 El Ciervo/07 El Camino De Dios/08 De Las Cenzias, El Hombre...../09 El Soldado/10 Lanza Ganado/11 Sigue, Sigue

UNIVERSO PERDIDO DISC 1-01 Amame Petiribi/02 Barridos por el Viento/03 El Collar del Perro/04 Born to Be Wild/05 Sequenze e Frequenze/06 Allen's Wrench/07 Paranoid

UNIVERSO PERDIDO DISC 2-01 Bodokentorten/02 Corriendo en la Montana/03 Tiempos Violentos/04 Highway Sun/05 Division Miami/06 El Convoy/07 Xanadu/08 El Pappo/09
Remember/10 Ride With Me

EL NUEVO ORDEN DE LA LIBERTAD-01 Las Campanadas/02 El Nuevo Orden De la Libertad/03 Resistiendo El Dolor/04 Hombre De Metal/05 Ganar-Perder/06 El Pastizal/07 David & Goliath/08 Bienvenidos/09 10.000/10 Dos Horses

Gonna take a while to get all these upped, links will be sometime this evening while I get tomorrow's post ready......sometimes these are labours of love and this is one of them, a lot of work, but a lot of good material here, hope you guys like this HALF as much as I do!