Given that they call it “rock” music it’s amazing that our shelves and hard drives aren’t groaning under the weight of concept albums about Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Adventures in the subterranean realm! Wooo!
A rare member of this exclusive club then is Los Mundos rip-roaring, acid flinging, trip Calor Central, which pulls through all manner of psych and rock into a bracing whirlpool of dinosaur sized thrills that’s shot in technicolour and filmed in cinemascope.
When the album starts, the slow and deliberate march of drums you could be forgiven for thinking we’re in Sigur Ros territory, where all is airy fairy and up in the clouds. Fear not! These long patterns of drums merely guide us down the first hole of our trip, moreover they alert us to the fact that big, booming drums will be our companions through our voyage. And, my word, the drums sound magnificent all the way through Calor Central.
Individual songs are not so important here as what matter the most is the experience and discovery. Having said that, ‘Subterraneo Mar Jurasico’ is the standout, a grandiose 9 minute thrill ride that stalks us with huge riffs. At the halfway point it knuckles down into a frenetic clipped motorism as we escape the beasts of the underworld and leave our fates to to the whims of the ocean beneath our feet.
Calor Central is a mighty, mighty album and a proud edition to the overwhelming quality of South American psych.
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