MAQUINA.

About

Few bands can claim to have kick started an entire national movement, but Màquina! genuinely can. Formed in Barcelona in 1969, the Catalan prog and psychedelic rock outfit became the most visible face of a grassroots scene that rewrote Spain's musical rulebook in the early seventies. Their debut album Why?, nicknamed the Croissant LP, is still talked about as one of the finest records to come out of Spain, built around wah wah, fuzz, and Hammond organ at a time when that sound was genuinely electric. Behind the scenes, the band was in near constant flux. Mandatory military service kept pulling founding members away, and by early 1971 the original lineup had completely dissolved. Rather than call it quits, co founder Enric Herrera rebuilt the group from scratch, pulling in teenagers from a band called Crac and the young Carles Benavent, and steering the sound toward jazz rock, blues, soul, and funk with a brass section to match. They wrapped up with a live album, En directo, in 1972, going out on their own terms.