Oldish Psych and Prog

Formed in May 1968, Aguaturbia are heralded as Chile's primary underground psychedelic band. Their debut album is now a megararity. It was recorded live in a simple four-track studio. Only 300 copies were pressed originally. It features a picture on the front cover showing the band sitting nude in a darkly lit room looking totally wasted! In a strict Catholic country this caused quite a stir, straight record shops refused to stock the record and the press and church both censored it. The only place you could buy it was in independent record shops. Considering that the "underground rock" scene in Chile was quite small, the record's rarity today is hardly surprising. The album begins with a wailin', bluesy cover of Jefferson Airplane's Somebody To Love with vocalist Denise striving to sound like Grace Slick. This earnt the band the title of "South American Jefferson Airplane". The band's guitarist Carlos Corales sounds superb and his skill is evident on the Je T'aime like Erotica and the ten-minute long mini-epic cover of Tommy James and The Shondells' Crimson And Clover, which again finds Denise in superb vocal form. Heartbreaker, Evol and Waterfall showcase Denise's vocals further, whilst Blues On The Westside is a bluesy instrumental to chill out to. Much of their material is heavy and raw with bursts of psych guitar, distortion and fuzz on tracks like Evol and Rollin' 'n' Tumblin'. The final title track is sung in Spanish.

Their second album, had an equally controversial cover, with their lead vocalist, Denise shown crucified. Like their debut it again failed to make the impact it deserved and the band split, with Carlos and Denise temporarily moving to New York in the U.S. in 1971, before returning in 1972 for a brief reunion. They played what was to be their last concert in the now long gone Lo Castillo Theatre.

In 1974, Carlos and Denise formed The Honeycomb Band, with Carlos later going into T.V., and Denise becoming a solo artist.