LOS BRINCOS Contrabando orig. '68 PR mod psych beat LP

$

51

Original 1968 LP by LOS BRINCOS, “Contrabando” on the Borinquen label, which means it’s a Puerto Rican pressing.  When in fact, Los Brincos were from Spain, and probably Spain’s finest, if not also most prolific, 60’s popsike band.  And like their more famous British counterparts, they started out beat, got psychedelic, and then eventually wounded up heavy prog.  This album came out in 1968 – take one look at the cover and you tell me where this falls in their oeuvre.  If you guessed it’s a Spanish cousin to Magical Mystery Tour, A Quick One While He’s Away and Something Else, you are definitely in los ballparcos.  And the songs here, like on those other landmark albums, are sheer popsike perfection – “Pequeno Pajaro”, translated into English, woulda made a nice hit for the Kinks or the Left Banke, with its baroque harpsichord and classy upbeat pop melody.  Likewise, I’d like to hear how far Mickey, Mike and those Monkees boys could’ve taken a well-written radio-friendly song like “El Pasaporte” – with its stompin’ handclappin’ melody and subtly psychedelic echoey backing vocals, it’s tailor-made for the pre-Head Pre-Fab Four.  But if Los Brincos should be writing hits for their more successful contemporaries, they’re not above stealing from them either.  Witness “The Train” – credited to “Fernando Arbex” but one listen to that jangly opening riff and it won’t take long to realize they’ve rather blatantly lifted it straight from the Who’s “Substitute”.  Still, Los Brincos nearly equal Pete’s mod anthem, with a nifty little slice of pop art goodness, and since this is a TRAIN we’re talking about here, they’ve replaced the hook “sub-sti-tute” with the more fitting “choo-choo-choo”, sung to the same melody of course.  Here’s hoping Pete Townshend’s lawyers are train enthusiasts.  There are countless American garage bands who’d kill for a song like “So Good to Dance”, the Brincos’ most frat rock offering here, powered by loud dirty fuzzbomb guitar riffs and thrashing Animal from the Muppet Show drums.  The Barbarians would’ve given their left arms for a song like this…oh wait, never mind.  Worth noting:  if the song “Nadie te Quiere Ya” is NOT a cover, it’s certainly the most exquisite unknown baroque pop MASTERPIECE these ears have ever heard.  With its classic pop melody, sawing strings and Beatlish Sergeant Pepper horns, this sounds like something only a Lennon-McCartney, Davies, or Brown-Calilli-Sansone credit could conceive.  Instead, there’s that “Fernando Arbex” credit again, and if this truly IS a Los Brincos original, then these guys were clearly a lot more talented than I thought.  After this brilliant foray into trippy pop, Los Brincos would go full-on heavy prog for what many consider their masterpiece, “Mundo, Demonio y Carne” in 1970 – but you’d feel that way only if you prefer the C.A. Quintet to the Left Banke, or “Who’s Next” to “Sell Out”.  No, the REAL masterpiece is right here – 1968’s “Contrabando” – and someone please get that Arbex guy a proper agent.  Original 1968 Puerto Rican mono pressing on the Borinquen label, DG-1106.  The bottom seam on the cover is completely split – you can tape it if you’d like – so I’d have to grade it VG at best, although the colorful psychedelic artwork is unblemished.  Vinyl plays VG+ to VG++, with some light crackle, but really good considering how trashed many of these Latin American pressings show up. 

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