Laghonia's debut album is a bit of a mish-mash of late-'60s styles, from the British invasion-like beat music of "Baby Baby" and "I Must Go" (which comprised the single they released as the New Juggler Sound in 1967) to heavy 1968-style psychedelic rock with hard guitar and organ riffs. There's also mellower prog-inflected pop-rock ("My Love"), soul-rock ("And I Saw Her Waiting") and son-of-Hendrix wailing ("Glue"). Sometimes you can make a pretty fair guess as to what discs these guys were wearing out: "Trouble Child," for instance, starts with a forceful variation of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" riff, and ends with a guitar rave-up straight out of the Yardbirds' "I'm a Man." It's so zig-zaggy that you could mistake this for a various artists compilation. The standout, and the least derivative track, is "Bahia," which hits a nice Latin-tempoed psychedelic groove not too far removed from very early Santana, with fiery guitar from Davey Levene. Originally pressed in a small edition of 300, it was reissued on CD in 1997. allmusic.com
Tracklist:
01.Baby, Baby 1:50
02.I Must Go 2:58
03.Neighbor 3:23
04.The Sand Man 3:27
05.Billy Morsa 4:19
06.Trouble Child 2:51
07.My Love 4:52
08.And I Saw Her Walking 3:22
09.Glue 3:17
10.Bahia 4:24
Laghonia:
Saul Cornejo - guitar, vocals
Manuel Cornejo - drums
Eddy Zaraus - bass
David Levane - guitar, vocals
Carlos Salom - keyboards
Alex Abad - percussion
01.Baby, Baby 1:50
02.I Must Go 2:58
03.Neighbor 3:23
04.The Sand Man 3:27
05.Billy Morsa 4:19
06.Trouble Child 2:51
07.My Love 4:52
08.And I Saw Her Walking 3:22
09.Glue 3:17
10.Bahia 4:24
Laghonia:
Saul Cornejo - guitar, vocals
Manuel Cornejo - drums
Eddy Zaraus - bass
David Levane - guitar, vocals
Carlos Salom - keyboards
Alex Abad - percussion
3 commenti:
Ciao Solidboy,
this disc I had seen him about 20 years ago in the lists of stores Italian as Disfunzioni musicali, Contempo, Casa del disco, but I was never able to get it for me and then fell into oblivion (I found the so-called Etcetera Background reprint of 1993). Now, thanks to you, it filled a gap.
Few countries in South America had such a fertile Psychedelia/Progressive scenario as Perú with great quality bands like the legendary Traffic Sound ("Mescalina"), Telegraph Avenue or El Polen, but all this groups had something in common, they all gathered to watch Laghonia in concert, not only to listen the only band in Perú and probably the first in South America that used a Hammond B2 back in the 60's, plus the obvious interest on the polyrhythmic songs they used to play.
The band was born on 1965 in the mind of brothers Cornejo (Saul on guitar, Manuel on drums) and Eddy Zaraus (Who made his own bass which he used all along his career in Laghonia).
Cornejo Brothers were very much into Classical music especially Tchaikovski, but it's not until they discover The Beatles that decided to form a Rock band, blending the previously mentioned influences with The Yardbirds, The Zombies (With their peculiar Baroque Rock), The Animals among others and later some clear Santana guitar riffs. But they needed an extra guitar player (Power trios were not popular back in 65) and recruited Alberto Miller and a percussionist named Alex Abad, and they choose the name as The New Jugglers Sound inspired in the British rock invasion. During the next three years they appear on TV shows, radio programs and even in schools, while writing almost 100 songs.
In 1968 Alberto Miller leaves the band and the rest of the members quickly notice that the musical scenario was rapidly changing, the British invasion was left behind by the USA and British Psychedelia so they start replacing their name for Laghonia (A play of words that sounds like The Agony -La Agonia- but with an extra h in the middle to join the words, the exact date of this change of name is lost in the mist of time, some say in 1968 others say in 1969).
They began to search for a new guitarist and one day Eddy Zaraus walking in a park in a small town in the north, and saw a kid who was sitting on the bench and played the guitar was a David Levene . An American who came to Lima at the age of 16, he went backpacking in hitchhiking trip through Peru. Eddy asks this guy if he plays in a band and invites him for an audition, the rest of the band is delighted with his playing that combines Blues and Psychedelia creating a very pleasant atmosphere, so they recruit him. They record a song named "Glue" (in reference to a drug that Saul had read about) and for the B side "Billy Morsa" (Billy Walrus). But there was something missing, if the band wanted to keep on with the changes, they needed a keyboardist and they find Carlos Salom, who was playing Brazilian Jazz.
Due to this influence they release their first hit single "Bahia" (The guys were looking at a Brazilian calendar and all liked the girl that represented the city of Bahia), During their tours, they traveled in an old 55 Oldsmobile except Carlos Salom who traveled in a moving truck sitting on the Hammond B2 because he was terrified anybody could make a single scratch on it.
In 1968, he recorded an album called "Glue",which appeared only in very limited quantities (supposedly only 300 pieces) in 1970. All eight album tunes were released on 45´s under the group name New Juggler Sound. When the band changed name into Laghonia in 1970 the Glue album came out. The music is catchy psychedelic Rock´n´Roll stuff, with lyrics in English, intense fuzz-wah-wah Guitars, Hammond B-2 organ and massive, variative percussion sounds.
Their two LP's "Glue" and "Etcetera" are recorded almost on the run because on those days in Lima the studios were not the most advanced plus very expensive. It's important to notice that a great part of their material is based on personal experiences, for example, Lima is a city where never rains but one Monday night there was a heavy and absolutely unusual rain, so Samuel and Saul wrote Everybody on Monday, another day they were talking about life after death and immediately got the idea for Someday, which IMO is a masterpiece.
While recording their last album Etcetera, Eddy and Alex left the band in order to make a spiritual journey. So Manuel, Saul, Carlos and David finished the album, but soon after the band broke, but not without leaving behind a great musical legacy that proved they were probably the Peruvian band of the 60's that was closer (if not part) of Progressive Rock genre. In their music you could hear the influences of Jimmy Hendrix Experience , Cream, Vanilla Fudge , Spirit and blues. Both Laghonia albums, "Glue" and "EtCetera" belong to most legendary and best South American psychedelic collector albums, besides "La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata", "Modulo 1000", "Traffic Sound?, definitely a must for sixties garage and psychedelic rock freaks.
Cornejo brothers and Carlos Salom later formed We All Together, more oriented towards the lighter side of the Beatles (Paul McCartney and The Wings) music, but that's another story.
Just found that Laghonia has recently released new album with rare versions and previously unreleased material named "Unglue", which I believe it's worth buying.
Thx Solidboy.
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