by Dean Wolfe, Prog Dog Media [album released Sept. 2, 2022]
Considering it's a debut release, Espresso has emerged as a cohesive, mature and confident prog rock fusion quartet brimming with strengths.
The album is simply and ably produced- formidably creative and fresh throughout. Guitarist Fernando Meneses Díaz says that the band wanted the material to be reproducable on stage without sacrificing anything for a live audience's listening pleasure.
The members of the band were humble as we spoke about how they collaborated together to create this new album, faced as they were with Pandemic lockdown logistical complications (see the interview on Prog Chat #14 here). Some of the material originated in a previous project but great effort was made to incorporate the newly added keyboard elements to the album's songs.
The guys in Espresso have different focuses as far as musical influences, but King Crimson and Rush do surface time and again. And in all fairness, Allan Holdsworth, Steven Wilson and ELP do come to mind as I listen. Worth mentioning too that being Chile natives, I do detect that culture's inevitable welcome influence in spots. Depeche Mode is an influence in the keyboard department.
A brief word about each musician:
Elías Orellana Gómez is the quintessential drummer that everyone wants in their band- clean and precise, and a clear candidate for future 'best drummer' category vacancies.
Bassist Pierino Madrid Pruzzo is a serious player, super-capable, busy, but never obtrusive. He doesn't just play the bass, he explores it.
Guitarist Fernando Menesis Díaz plays big and broad, moving between colourful and nebulous atmospherics to focussed, mean and 'shreddy'.
Keyboardist Wilfredo Salas González: It's nice to hear a keyboardist that feels essential and omnipresent in a band rather than being an add-on or mere padding to a project.
No need for a singer on the album. There's plenty here to engage the ear.
'Cooler'- has a fantastic dirty grinding theme groove. This composition hints how this band nimbly moves in and out of shadows, and in and out of sections with ease. It's full of plays on time signatures, and features bass and guitar prominently with solid support from synthesizers as is the case on much of the album. The jazz fusion feel is established here as well and sets a tone for the album. The guitars have an Alex Lifeson-esque tone.
'Nuevo Horizonte' is exciting and quick paced. It features lead synth pulses and jazz fusion ear-bending chords emphasized on Fernando's wah wah pedal. Also we hear some cool drumming work while we listen to atmsopheric recorded astronaut radio chatter.
'Io' is a most unpredictable song. It starts off with spacey chords, and the bass plays a key role again. Then there's a feel-change and a new monster riff, and then back to spaceyness. Probably my favourite moment on the album is when we hear the latin music influence with a piano section that I only wish there were more of on this album- the Latin American vibes compliment prog fusion surprisingly well. The bass plays has lines that will motivate any musician to want to figure out what Pierino is doing. Then we have some really shreddy guitar solos showing again how Holdsworth has influenced so many guitarists.
'Kosmos' shows off Espresso's diversity as song composers. It's complex (as usual) but easily accessible. The bass starts the song with multi finger hammer-ons. There's some playful teasings of smooth lounge- jazz in there- and this perhaps hints at native Chilean music. There's more spacey-ness with walking baselines and synth sweeps, plays on complex time signatures over busy keyboard lines, and even a surprise mini-drum solo à la Ringo Starr meets David Bowie.
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