Here’s what happens: Buenos Aires beat group buds Alberto Infusino and Alberto Vanasco change the name of their band in 1968 from The Free Men to La Máquina De Música – Spanish for The Music Machine – after the latter discovers the first album by, ahem, The Music Machine. Shortly thereafter, both Albertos are invited by scene kingpin Billy Bond to record an album as a duo, singing in Spanish, giving rise to the Sandhy & Mandhy project (dig those superfluous Hs).
The resultant album, recorded in a mere three hours in November 1969, was rejected out of hand by Bond, who noticed – no flies on him – that the duo he had in mind had somehow become a full band. Infusino (Sandhy) and Vanasco (Mandhy) had invited some pals along to flesh out the sound, and seemed unwilling to temper the wilder impulses of yore. Accordingly, the earnest beat balladry of Quisiera Olvidarte soon gives way to the unravelled likes of Lluvia, sounding uncannily like Os Mutantes with its fly’s-eye fuzz guitar; percussion that resembles scampering Hanna-Barbera feet; and a full-scale explosion. Cohesion throughout is provided by Jorge Conrad’s ? & The Mysterians-style Farfisa organ sound, reedier than a copy of Transformer fished from a Fenland tributary.
