Detailed Reviews [Gigur - 2006 - "Fin del Tiempo"]

Prolusion. GIGUR was formed some three years ago in Monterrey, Mexico. Released last December, "Fin del Tiempo" is their debut album. The CD bearer is a very impressive digipack and it's full of information, which is, unfortunately, exclusively in Spanish.

Analysis. According to the CD booklet, two of the four band members handle both guitars and keyboards, and one of them sings in addition. In reality, there are few keyboard patterns on the album, and only one of the eleven tracks present comes with lyrical content and, therefore, features vocals. The influences include (in descending order) Rush, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd and Allan Holdsworth, but this factor doesn't at all mean that Gigur are devoid of independent compositional thinking. The CD is long, exceeding 66 minutes in duration. As often happens in such situations, some compositions seem to be out of place here; at least they are strongly inferior to the others. These are the first and the last two tracks, although only those taking the polar positions in the album's track list are totally unimpressive. Falla Tridimencional is just one-dimensional actually, as well as Mundos Paralelos. Both are typical ambient music, with fluid guitar and light bass solos slowly interacting against a background of monotonously droning synthesizers in conjunction with some interminably annoying humming sound. Para Ti Que es Mas Facil is a quite unpretentious melodic guitar ballad. Nominally, it runs for more than 7 minutes, but there are two minutes of absolute emptiness instead of the finale. The title track is that very single song. Traditional Hard Rock textures alternate with those referring to the so-called Alternative, plus romantically affirmative vocals in places. A kind of mixture of a Hollywood blockbuster and a Mexican soap opera, this is, nevertheless, the best of these four. The other compositions are good. While they vary in style, guitars (normally two electric and one semi-acoustic) are always at the forefront of the picture. Crater and Sueno Estelar are an effective blend of Rush-like Prog-Metal and guitar-laden Art-Rock whose originality is beyond question. Diferentes pero Iquales is much of the same story, except for the beginning, which is rooted in '80's Thrash Metal. A tasty, well thought-out music in the vein of Space Rock with certain echoes of Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree and occasional quasi improvisations is presented on Quintaesencia and the 12-minute Passajero. Both are filled with a mysterious atmosphere and are strongly mesmerizing, although most of the arrangements are slow and reflective. Resonancias Atemporales contrasts expressive acoustic guitar passages with slow, fluid solos from its electric counterpart. Flotando en Ti is one of the shortest tracks here, and yet is thematically multifarious and highly impressive in general. It begins and evolves as quasi Jazz-Fusion amid Allan Holdsworth and Gigur:-) at their most original, while the finale is tasty proto-progressive Hard Rock with meaty guitar riffs and blistering solos.

Conclusion. Gigur's "Fin del Tiempo" is quite inconsistent material, but I would never say it is unpolished. The musicians are well qualified in what they do. All in all, this is a truly solid debut effort and can be considered a very good album, as long as we omit at least the two 'boundary' tracks.

VM: May 7, 2006