Pescado Rabioso -

Pescado Rabioso was an Argentine blues-folk-psych band headed by former Almendra guitarist, singer, and songwriter Luis Alberto Spinetta. In 1972, they released Desatormentándonos on Microfon, followed by two albums in 1973: Pescado 2 (a double album) and Artaud.

David Lebón replaced Osvaldo “Bocón” Frascino when the latter departed after the first album for the psych-rock one-off Sacramento. Lebón served briefly in Rabioso rivals Color Humano — which also released two albums in 1973 — and also played in Pappo’s Blues alongside Black Amaya.

After Pescado Rabioso split, Spinetta expanded on the band’s musical vision in his next three-album outfit Invisible. Carlos Cutaia joined Charly García in La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros.

Members: Luis Alberto Spinetta (guitar, vocals), Black Amaya (drums), Osvaldo “Bocón” Frascino (bass, guitar, vocals, 1971), Carlos Cutaia (keyboards, 1972-73), David Lebón (bass, guitar, vocals, 1972-73)

Background

Luis Alberto Spinetta formed Pescado Rabioso (Rabid Fish) in late 1971 after a seven-month journey through Brazil, the United States, England, and the Netherlands. Seeking a sharper, more electric sound than that of his prior band Almendra, Spinetta conceived Pescado in response to the amplified aesthetic of Argentine contemporaries like Pappo’s Blues.

He assembled an initial trio with drummer Black Amaya and bassist Osvaldo “Bocón” Frascino, rehearsing in a modest space on Calle Arribeños in Buenos Aires. Their name, imagined during Spinetta’s time abroad, evoked both aggression and contradiction—symbolizing his desire to shed Almendra’s introspective softness for a confrontational, riff-driven language rooted in hard blues and psychedelic rock.

Desatormentándonos

Pescado Rabioso released their debut album, Desatormentándonos, in 1972 on Microfon.

The album presents a raw, blues-driven framework laced with extended psych excursions and shifting dynamic contrasts. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta threads sustained distortion and clustered phrases across fluid exchanges with bassist Osvaldo “Bocón” Frascino, whose lead guitar and voice define the acoustic lull “Dulce 3 nocturno.” Keyboardist Carlos Cutaia enters on “Serpiente (Viaja por la sal)” with long-tone organ lines that widen the harmonic field beneath Spinetta’s fuzzed arcs. Drummer Black Amaya anchors each track with cymbal wash, staggered fills, and an adaptive backbeat that alternates between propulsion and atmospheric diffusion.

Desatormentándonos opens with two tension-saturated pieces driven by sustained distortion and vocal abrasion. “Blues de Cris” draws its weight from the downward pressure of Spinetta’s guitar lines, which rise in sharp flashes during the closing solo, while “El jardinero (temprano amaneció)” stretches across nine minutes in coiled bursts, with climbing patterns that collapse into widened phrasing at each vocal re-entry. “Dulce 3 nocturno” replaces that volatility with acoustic interlace, sung in three parts and centered on Frascino’s fragile lead, where cymbal mist and suspended chords fold into a quiet cascade.

“Algo flota en la laguna” regains volume and acceleration through layered riffing and rhythmic descent, pulling from deep bass surges and a flanged guitar that lurches across the stereo field before falling into brief collapse. “Serpiente (viaja por la sal)” sustains the album’s longest arc, beginning with slow harmonic bloom and Hammond foundation from Cutaia, then rising into mid-section acceleration shaped by sustained drive and sharp instrumental descent. Spinetta’s vocal arc mirrors the instrumentation’s turn, pressing into extended syllables as the rhythm section contracts beneath him. Each track shifts its weight in stages, favoring sudden openings, cutaways, and reversals rather than linear momentum.

A (Damas)
A1. “Blues de Cris” [Cris’s Blues] (3:32) – Spinetta – Heavy-toned blues addressed to Spinetta’s former partner Cristina Bustamante, confronting the emotional aftermath of their breakup and the fading memory of her eyes.
A2. “El jardinero (temprano amaneció)” [The Gardener (He Rose Early)] (9:04) – Spinetta – A visceral protest song in the form of an apocalyptic blues; depicts the gardener waking to a world in ruin, voicing rage against torture and injustice.
A3. “Dulce 3 nocturno” [Sweet Nocturne for 3] (5:09) – Amaya, Frascino, Spinetta – Gentle acoustic trio sung and played collectively, evoking calm and camaraderie; the “3” symbolizes the original trio’s creative bond.

B (Caballeros)
B1. “El monstruo de la laguna” [The Monster of the Lagoon] (5:13) – Frascino, Spinetta – Aggressive riff-driven piece using horror imagery as veiled social commentary; the monster represents a threat to be confronted or expelled.
B2. “Serpiente (Viaja por la sal)” [Serpent (Travels Through the Salt)] (8:59) – Spinetta – The album’s most structurally elaborate track; maps a metaphysical or spiritual journey, framed by rhythmic shifts and Hammond organ layers that forecast Spinetta’s future style.

CD bonus tracks from their subsequent lineup
6. “Me gusta ese tajo” [I Like That Gash] (2:25) – Amaya, Frascino, Spinetta
7. “Despiértate nena” [Wake Up, Baby] (3:13) – Spinetta, Amaya
8. “Post-crucifixión” [Post-Crucifixion] (3:44) – Spinetta, Amaya, Cutaia

Sessions took place between July and September 1972 at Phonalex Studios in Buenos Aires, tracked on 4-channel Ampex tape under Spinetta’s production. Engineers Norberto Orliac, Guillermo, and an unnamed third handled recording duties. Frascino recorded all bass parts on the core album and played lead guitar on “Dulce 3 nocturno”; David Lebón entered later, contributing to the CD bonus tracks. Cutaia’s organ appears solely on “Serpiente” in the original sequence.

Cover artwork was drawn by Gustavo Spinetta and Jorge Gonzalo Vizñovezky. The album shipped in September 1972 with an inner sleeve featuring two prose texts by Spinetta, both ending with the phrase “Yo te amo Beatles.”

Pescado 2

Pescado Rabioso released their two-record numerical second album in 1973 on Microfon.

The album expands the group’s sonic architecture with long-form compositions, layered interplay, and segmented transitions that blur the lines between written material and spontaneous development. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta builds sustained electric motifs around harmonic phrases that shift beneath keyboardist Carlos Cutaia’s alternating Hammond washes and piano figures, particularly on the side-length suites and transitional pieces. Bassist David Lebón locks into the structural movement with modal countermelodies and brief bursts of solo phrasing, working in tandem with drummer Black Amaya, whose breaks and tempo pivots support the album’s fluid yet rigorous framework. Spinetta, Lebón, and Amaya also contribute secondary guitar, voice, and acoustic passages, heightening the tonal range across both discs.

Pescado 2 opens with brief vocal mockery before immersing into a blurred sequence of rhythm-swollen ballads and raw electric pieces. “Iniciado del alba” and “Poseído del alba” sustain suspended motion through elongated phrasing and weighted percussion, while Spinetta’s voice moves with thickened echo and breathy strain. “Como el viento voy a ver” snaps that stillness with descending Hammond swells and guitar sequences that fold into tandem improvisation, pacing toward a volatile close. “Madre-selva” and “Peteribí” stretch the ensemble’s range: the first floats between tonal clarity and distortion drift with layered organ tones and a locked-in guitar solo; the second lifts off from structured riffs into escalating sections, each more fragmented, culminating in a spiraled keyboard passage that cuts laterally against Spinetta’s scalding leads.

On the second LP, “Credulidad” stands in restraint—an acoustic setting that compresses tension into close-voiced guitar shapes and elliptical vocal turns. “¡Hola, pequeño ser!” threads several blocks of rhythm exchange and sudden modulation, veering between clipped refrains and slow-burning instrumental flashpoints. “Cristálida” ends the set in staged ascent, with Spinetta circling his voice around jagged acoustic intervals while Cutaia’s orchestrated strings reinforce the meter, winding upward into a full-bodied passage that balances chamber weight with distorted underscoring. Sections fold in and out of focus, often turning direction mid-statement, tethered by an ensemble willing to hold or snap the line as needed.

Disc 1: Pescado
A1. “Panadero ensoñado” [Dreamy Baker] (0:37) – Anónimo — A brief intro built from layered vocal percussion, used humorously to set the stage for the album.
A2. “Iniciado del alba” [Initiate of the Dawn] (3:12) – Spinetta — Thematic focus on dawn and illumination, part of a lyrical thread inspired by Rimbaud; dreamlike pacing with languid phrasing.
A3. “Poseído del alba” [Possessed by the Dawn] (3:42) – Spinetta — Companion to the previous track, with sharper dynamic changes; an estribillo punctuates the otherwise hazy arrangement.
A4. “Como el viento voy a ver” [Like the Wind, I Will See] (5:10) – Spinetta — Only blues-based piece on the album; a song of unresolved love, structured around guitar and Hammond-driven improvisation.
A5. “Viajero naciendo” [Traveler Being Born] (2:53) – Spinetta — Continues the “dawn” sequence thematically; notable for its playful piano insertions and short-form development.
A6. “Mañana o pasado” [Tomorrow or the Day After] (2:43) – Lebón — First recorded composition by David Lebón; acoustic, slow-paced, and introspective.
B1. “Nena boba” [Silly Girl] (3:06) – Spinetta — Written in response to Lebón’s partner; caused friction in the group; contrasts a whimsical guitar line with blues organ inflections.
B2. “Madre-selva” [Mother-Jungle] (7:42) – Spinetta — Expansive and layered; Cutaia’s organ defines the sonic space and creates a paradisiacal mood, leading into a sharp guitar solo.
B3. “Peteribí” [Peteribí – a native Argentine tree] (7:34) – Spinetta, Cutaia, Amaya — Largely instrumental; alternates structured riffing with free-form guitar and piano improvisation; serves as the thematic close to the first LP.

Disc 2: Dos
C1. “16″ de Peteribí” [16 Seconds of Peteribí] (0:18) – Anónimo — A 16-second reprise of the previous track, designed to bridge the two LPs without breaking mood.
C2. “Señorita” [Miss] (1:32) – Spinetta, Cutaia, Amaya, Lebón — Brief jam drawn from the band’s live improv exercises; light percussion focus.
C3. “Credulidad” [Credulity] (3:04) – Spinetta — A melancholic acoustic piece about disillusionment in love; dense with emotion, featuring expressive vocal phrasing.
C4. “¡Hola, pequeño ser!” [Hello, Little Being!] (9:37) – Spinetta, Cutaia, Amaya — Anti-drug theme; built around multiple shifting sections—riff interplay, Hammond motifs, and lyrical crescendo.
C5. “Mi espíritu se fue” [My Spirit Has Left] (4:28) – Spinetta, Frascino — Another quiet, acoustic-led entry; features a searing electric guitar solo from Lebón and echoed vocals.
D1. “Sombra de la noche negra” [Shadow of the Black Night] (5:57) – Amaya — Dark riff-driven track with female-narrated lyrics; anchored in a heavy, oppressive rhythm.
D2. “La cereza del zar” [The Czar’s Cherry] (1:48) – Spinetta — Short, acoustic, and whimsical; built around the phrasing of its unusual title.
D3. “Corto” [Short] (1:42) – Spinetta — Another acoustic interlude; peaceful and atmospheric, interpreted as an antiwar meditation.
D4. “Cristálida” [Chrysalis] (8:42) – Spinetta — Subtitled Aguas claras de los olimpos [Clear Waters of the Olympians]; a sweeping, orchestral-augmented suite with strings arranged by Cutaia; ends with Spinetta’s line “No tengo más Dios” [I have no more God].
D5. “Los Arieles Aedo” [The Arieles Aedo] (1:07) – Anónimo

Sessions ran from November 1972 to February 1973 at Phonalex Studios in Buenos Aires. Spinetta led the project’s direction with assistance from engineer Norberto Orliac and session coordinator Oscar López. The band self-produced the album under the group name. Spinetta played all primary guitars and overdubbed bass on “Mañana o pasado.” Cutaia directed the orchestral arrangement on “Cristálida” and contributed organ, piano, and tape effects. Lebón handled most bass parts, second guitar, and a lead solo on “Mi espíritu se fue.” Amaya played drums throughout.

The package included a 52-page illustrated booklet with lyrics, poems, and listener prompts, plus hand-drawn artwork by Spinetta and his brother Gustavo. Both LPs display custom labels with the “pescado rabioso” eel insignia. Pescado 2 appeared in early 1973 and marked the final full-band statement before the group dissolved later that year.

Artaud

Pescado Rabioso released their third album, Artaud, in 1973 on Microfon.

The album unfolds through a mostly acoustic framework with understated percussion and open harmonic voicings. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta layers delicate strums and internal voicings with sparse electric piano and sustained piano intervals that carry tension between tonal centers. He shares rhythm duties with bassist Emilio del Guercio and drummers Rodolfo García and Gustavo Spinetta, whose rotating setups provide an elastic underpinning—from quiet thrum to backbeat-laced counterpoint—across the album’s intimate and sectional constructions. Instrumental activity centers on Spinetta’s multitracked acoustic themes, ornamented at key moments by maracas, brushed cymbals, effects processing, and lyrical interplay between piano lines and voice phrasing.

Artaud opens in sparse reverie and gradually circles through tonal extremes—resigned lullabies, jagged exhortations, private grief spiraling into surreal disintegration. “Todas las hojas son del viento” sets the tone with suspended acoustic phrasing and a hushed vocal line that underscores its reflection on maternity, mortality, and autonomy. “Cementerio Club” unfurls in down-tempo shuffle with saturated phrasing, smeared electric guitar accents, and a seething blues line that culminates in one of Spinetta’s most fevered solo passages. “Por” slips into dadaist cut-up recitation over stripped acoustic patterns, cycling a non-sequitur word sequence that builds tension through its lack of resolution.

“La sed verdadera” restores contour and breath with a brushed acoustic backdrop that thins into a spacious interlude before flowing into “Cantata de puentes amarillos”—a nine-minute acoustic suite of sudden rhythmic pivots, stuttered phrasing, and elliptical refrains. Here, guitar and voice construct and deconstruct fragments in a slow burn that blends self-interrogation with poetic invocation. “Bajan” punctures the introspection with a sharper pulse and clipped rhythmic interplay between voice, guitar, and bass, its forward motion framed around the collapse of temporal anxiety.

“A Starosta, el idiota” opens with minor-key piano figures and off-axis phrases, then slips into tape fragments, reversed sound, and a looped Beatles sample before breaking with vocal weeping and a whispered benediction. Final track “Las habladurías del mundo” returns to rock structure but keeps its center unsettled, toggling between affirmation and detachment. Throughout Artaud, Spinetta compresses folkloric simplicity, studio solitude, and disjointed sonic intrusions into a document of personal rupture and fragile ascent.

A1. “Todas las hojas son del viento” [All the Leaves Are of the Wind] (2:12) – Spinetta – Reflects on maternity and mortality, written for Spinetta’s ex-partner Cristina Bustamante during her pregnancy; underscores life’s fragility and the autonomy of the child.
A2. “Cementerio Club” [Cemetery Club] (4:55) – Spinetta – A slow blues with grim humor and surrealist overtones, performed with Gustavo Spinetta (drums) and Emilio del Guercio (bass); equates romantic loss with death.
A3. “Por” [For] (1:45) – Spinetta – Dadaist acoustic fragment built from a disjointed list of nouns ending in “por”; abstract, atonal, and structurally anti-linear.
A4. “Superchería” [Superstition] (4:21) – Spinetta – Rock piece with García and del Guercio that challenges religious dogma and blind faith; contrasts dream with belief.
A5. “La sed verdadera” [The True Thirst] (3:32) – Spinetta – Warns against idolization of rock figures; asserts that lasting peace and truth arise from internal reflection.

B1. “Cantata de puentes amarillos” [Cantata of Yellow Bridges] (9:12) – Spinetta – Nine-minute acoustic suite inspired by Van Gogh’s Langlois Bridge; blends metaphysical inquiry, artistic suffering, and references to state violence (“con esta sangre alrededor”).
B2. “Bajan” [They Descend] (3:26) – Spinetta – Slow-tempo rocker about presence, patience, and the non-linearity of time; urges grounding in the now.
B3. “A Starosta, el idiota” [To Starosta, the Idiot] (3:15) – Spinetta – Piano-based track directed at the inner fool; incorporates tape collage and emotional rupture before resolving into consolation (“es como la luz en primavera”).
B4. “Las habladurías del mundo” [The World’s Gossip] (4:03) – Spinetta – Closing statement on rumor, media distortion, and the invasive narratives projected onto artists’ private lives.

Sessions took place in mid-1973 following the silent dissolution of Pescado Rabioso. Spinetta entered the studio independently, producing the album in coordination with Jorge Álvarez and engineer Norberto Orliac. Gustavo Spinetta plays drums on “Cementerio Club” and “Bajan,” while Rodolfo García plays drums, cowbell, and background vocals on “Superchería” and “Las habladurías del mundo.” Emilio del Guercio plays bass on all four band-oriented tracks and sings backing vocals. Juan Carlos Robles contributes effects on “La sed verdadera,” and Orliac adds tape work to “A Starosta, el idiota.” Spinetta arranged and recorded all guitars, vocals, piano, and auxiliary percussion.

Packaged in an irregular green-and-yellow die-cut sleeve with Artaud’s portrait, the LP included liner statements explaining that the musicians appear “by request” under the continuing idea of Pescado Rabioso.

Postlude

After Pescado Rabioso split, Luis Alberto Spinetta expanded on the band’s musical vision in his next three-album outfit Invisible. Carlos Cutaia joined Charly García in La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, which issued two albums in 1976/77 on Microfón.

Discography: