El Alamo - Malos Pensamientos [VINYL]

Gatefold sleeve El Alamo was a cult Peruvian psychedelic rock band that, as other groups in Lima such as Laghonia, Traffic Sound and Telegraph Avenue did, sung in English aiming to reach the international market. Their only LP was released in 1971 and was recorded under the influence of Hendrix, Santana, and The Allman Brothers. Unavailable for almost two decades, we are now happy to reissue "Malos pensamientos" in its full glory, with gatefold jacket, two bonus tracks taken from their rare 45, and an insert with liner notes. Released in December 1971, "Malos pensamientos" is a psychedelia and Latin rock album on the Peruvian Decibel record label. The local rock market appealed to the label, in spite of Santana's expulsion that same month by the nationalist military dictatorship to appease radical university students who protested vociferously that rock was imperialist. Decibel commissioned an LP under a Spanish title for this reason, but all the songs were sung in English, a linguistic choice driven by the naive desire to reach the international market. The origins of El Alamo can be found in Los Youngers, a group from Huacho, a city 140 km north of Lima, which was sponsored by the local priest to encourage younger parishioners to attend the go-go-style masses churches were celebrating across Peru by 1967. After recording a 45, the guitarist and bassist, Tino Pow Sang and Arturo Montenegro, moved to the Lima district of Maranga and revamped the band with Luis Iturry and Ricardo Allison from Los Shoes Makers joining the line-up. Although influenced by Hendrix, Santana, and The Allman Brothers, they were also inspired by the stage performance of the Marshmallows Soup Group, a Canadian band that played in Lima at the end of 1969. The average age of the group was 20 when they began laying down the instrumental track at a five-hour session at El Virrey studio. The album stand-out tracks include 'Malos Pensamientos', a progressive rock song inspired by a Jimi Hendrix riff, accompanied by the atmospheric sounds of the organ; the rock ballad 'Good Night', a must at parties with psychedelic lights and blacklights; 'Candy', an abridged version of 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' (Crosby, Stills & Nash); and the psychedelic mantra 'Can You See Me'. Our reissue includes two bonus tracks taken from a rare 45 recorded in 1971 by Tino Pow Sang and Ricardo Allison under El Alamo name despite the group had already disbanded.