As with every story, music always has a B-side. Argentine rock has a long tradition of releasing hidden gems and rarities that are pure elixir for fans. Here are five little-known albums by some of Argentina’s most celebrated musicians.
“Only Love Can Sustain”- Luis Alberto Spinetta (1979)
“Only Love Can Sustain” (1979) is Luis Alberto Spinetta’s third solo studio album and his only one sung entirely in English. The project began when tennis star Guillermo Vilas, a close friend of Spinetta, connected him with Columbia Records USA, which offered him an international recording contract.
Produced by George Butler, the album blends soft rock, jazz fusion, soul, and funk with lush strings. Its eleven tracks were recorded in Los Angeles and New York, with orchestral arrangements by Torrie Zito and an all-star lineup of session musicians, including drummer Terry Bozzio, percussionists Alex Acuña and Paulinho Da Costa, and bassist Abraham Laboriel. Gustavo Bazterrica was the only Argentine to play on the album.
Spinetta contributed several of his own compositions—including “Something Beautiful”—while other tracks were co-written with label-appointed songwriters. “Children of the Bells” paired Spinetta’s music with lyrics by Guillermo Vilas. The album also features a cover of Gino Vannelli’s “Omens of Love” and three short piano interludes, “Jade I, II, and III,” which foreshadowed his next legendary band, Spinetta Jade. The title track was originally composed by Spinetta in Spanish as “Solo el amor puede sostener” before being adapted into English for the album.
The album was commercially unsuccessful and left Spinetta deeply dissatisfied due to the lack of artistic control and heavy production polish. Bored and frustrated with the process, he subsequently rescinded his five-year contract. While his view of the album softened slightly over time—acknowledging years later that he viewed it as a unique challenge—it remains an unusual chapter in his discography. It was reissued in 2016.
“Black Album” (Unreleased Sessions) – Charly García (1988–1989)
The “Black Album” (or “Cintas negras”) is one of the most celebrated bootlegs in Argentine rock history. Recorded between 1988 and 1989 across Studios Panda in Buenos Aires and Ion / Electric Lady Studios in New York, these home cassettes and unreleased studio tapes circulated hand-to-hand among sound technicians, close friends, and collectors. The informal title originated from the physical black sleeves and labels of the original pirated tapes, alongside cultural nods to Beatles and Prince lore.
Produced during a turbulent transitional era, the material captures raw early sketches for “Cómo conseguir chicas” (1989)—such as stripped-down, synth-heavy versions of “Fanky,” “No toquen,” and “A punto de caer”—as well as discarded English-language compositions, electro-pop rhythm tracks driven by LinnDrum sequencers, and spontaneous studio jams with his live line-up (including Fernando Samalea, Hilda Lizarazu, and Carlos García López).
Rich with studio banter and unpolished improvisations, this bootleg offers an intimate look at García’s chaotic, highly prolific creative mindset right before his full-blown plunge into the Say No More era in the 90s.
“Plan V”- Plan V (1996)
“Plan V”, also known as “Hábitat Individual”, is the first album by the electronic project formed by Argentine musician Gustavo Cerati and Chileans Andrés Bucci, Christian Powditch and Guillermo Ugarte. Mixing electronic and ambient music, its five tracks were recorded in Santiago de Chile, in the basement of the Background record store, and at Ambar 2 in Argentina, before Soda Stereo’s breakup was official.
Fenix Discos released it in 1996, with “Teletrack,” “Aurora Turbo,” “Tripulante 2.3,” “Número 9 (Sistema Cerrojo)” and “Polynol Plus.”
The album was presented in Santiago in a small venue before 40 people, with the duo Marciano as the opening act. A video of that night, filmed by an attendee, was published on YouTube 25 years later.
In Buenos Aires, Plan V gave two almost secret shows at the bar Ozono for 100 people, announced by a cryptic ad in Clarín’s youth supplement, and later played at the Inrockuptibles festival and at the Discoteque Planet.
A second record, “Plan V/Black Dog”(1998), was shared with the English group The Black Dog, led by Ken Downie. Plan V’s recordings are not on digital music platforms and can only be found in unofficial YouTube uploads.
“En directo”- Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota (1992)
“En directo” is the only official live album by Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, released on December 14, 1992, to counter low-quality bootlegs. It is nicknamed the band’s “official bootleg.” It gathers highlights from two concerts: Teatro de Verano in Uruguay on December 8, 1989, and Estadio Obras Sanitarias on December 29, 1991.
It was the first of the band’s albums mastered in the United States and included two different covers, one by Del Cielito and one by Patricio Rey Discos. All twelve rock songs are composed by Indio Solari and Skay Beilinson, and they include “El blues del noticiero,” a song the band played live but had never recorded in the studio.
The lineup features Solari on vocals, Beilinson on guitar, Daniel “Semilla” Bucciarelli on bass, Walter Sidotti on drums and Sergio Dawi on saxophone.
“Carolo”- Babasónicos (2012)
“Carolo” is a Babasónicos album made of songs discarded during the recording of “Jessico” (2001). Recorded in April and May 2001 and produced by Gustavo Iglesias and the band, it was meant to come out a few months after “Jessico”, but the project was shelved amid the 2001 crisis. It was mixed in 2005, and remixed and released in August 2012, alongside a reissue of “Jessico”, more than a decade after the original album.
Its eleven tracks, which mix rock and pop with touches of dream pop and post-rock, include “Deeee,” “Su Caballo,” “Lajotape,” “Cachetadas Pares” and “Los Hippies de Vineland,” the song chosen to present the reissue, inspired in the Thomas Pynchon book that became a movie in 2025 with Leo DiCaprio and Sean Penn.
Releasing outtakes, sometimes mistakenly called B-sides, is a habit of the band, which usually distributes them separately from its main albums. Carolo is one published furthest from the original record. Others include “Vórtice Marxista” (1998), “Vedette” (2000), “Groncho” (2000) and “Mucho +” (2009), “Shambala” (2015), and “Inflame” (2016).
La entrada The B-side of Argentine rock: five hidden albums by its biggest stars se publicó primero en Buenos Aires Herald.