V/A-HOMENAJE A MACROMASSA, CD, 2000 (RECORDED:1994), SPAIN

A sub-underground musical institution in Spain at the time of their existence during the 80's and 90's, Macromassa was formed around the core duo of Juan Crek and composer/organizer/writer/Renaissance man Victor Nubla but remained open-ended in the extreme, with 146 other participants having come and gone during their lifetime. For a group with so many other cooks in the kitchen, there's a remarkably strong feel of continuity between all off their work, which finds its corollary in the kind of French fringe R.I.O. of the 80's that involves whimsical art rock arrangements atop spluttery drum machines and dislocated dialogues between sax and synth gurgle, like Alesia Cosmos, Axolotl and Birge/Gorge/Shiroc. Much of their discography can be downloaded in its entirety from their own site here but as for the album of Macromassa covers at hand? Well, unless you plan on giving yourself a crash course in their music in advance, the covers heard here will be sans reference for many, but don't let that stop you. There's a fantastic range of fringe talent bringing their "A" game across this uniformly strong compilation, including the grand old man of lopsided Gallic whimsy, Pascal Comelade (the only non-Spanish contributor here), whose darkly clattering and emotional cover of Amuleto from the "Macromissa" LP sits next to the Goebbels & Harth-like pan-cultural speaker scramble of cult faves Clonicos in providing the albums peak moments.

1. Sociedades En Tetrabrik-La Facil Lectura De Los Hechos
2. Clonicos-Comunicaciones Con Cara De Asco
3. Lattosso-Sorpresa
4. Superelvis-Viejo Leon
5. Pascale Comelade-Amuleto
6. Pere Boada, Alicia Martínez & Oriol Perucho-El Espigado Aspecto De Martinez
7. El Sirera_Tientos y Navajas-Solo Pez
8. Antonio Murga & Locos de Atar-Macromissa
9. Carter Piler-Sorpresa
10. Koniec-Primeras Impresiones
11. Tina Girl-Yo No Soy El Omitologo

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