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Fans of uber jazz fusion guitarists like John Mclaughlin and Alan Holdsworth have a new reason to rejoice in the rising star of Uruguayan guitarist Beledo. Actually Beledo is not new, he has been a star in Latin America for some time now, and in recent years has been working with some well known North Americans such as Randy Brecker, Adam Holzman and Gary Husband. If Beledo’s name is not known yet, signing with MoonJune records in 2013 should help give him more exposure. So we come to 2016 and Beledo has released a new album of powerhouse virtuoso classic fusion called “Dreamland Mechanism”.
The first three cuts on this CD reveal that Belado is not only a formidable guitarist but he can also play keyboards with the best of them as well. On these three tracks, Beledo is a one man mini-orchestra, double tracking guitars, violin, accordian and keyboards while backed by the rhythm section of Lincoln Goines on bass, and Gary Husband on drums. Opening track, “Mechanism”, is a highlight with its late 60s styled heavy riffs reminding us how much early jazz rock came from the hard blues centered riffs of Jack Bruce and Cream. On track four, “Lucila”, Belado shows his interest in poly-rhythmic Indonesian fusion by bringing on Sundanese percussionists, Endang Ramdan and Cucu Kurnia. “Sudden Voyage” continues the complex rhythms as Husband plays something very akin to an Afro-Cuban ensemble on his drum kit.
For the rest of the album, Beledo puts away the keyboards and sticks to his ample guitar skills as they fire off some more classic fusion tracks, and one more with Indonesian flavor, “Budjanaji”, which also features a solo from Indonesian guitarist Dewa Budjana. Beledo sites Alan Holdsworth as an inspiration, and his influence shows, but Beledo is far from a copyist and has developed his own signature sound, one that should start becoming more familiar to the international fusion crowd. Fans of high quality jazz-fusion guitaristics should check this out, this is not just mind-numbing shredding, Beledo has technique to burn, but he can be tastefully melodic and expressive as well. You will hear plenty of intense fret work on "Dreamland Mechanism", but Belodo always puts the music first.