Free Ride – Acido Y Puto

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · November 26, 2024

Free Ride is a heavy psychedelic stoner rock band from Madrid, Spain. Formed by childhood friends Borja Fresno on guitar and vocals, Victor Bedmar on bass, and Carlos Bedmar on drums, the band started in 2016. Their debut Self Titled album was released in 2019. Acido Y Puto was released on Small Stone Records and came out on August 9th 2024.

“Space Nomad” begins the album with a righteous cosmic/ psychedelic jam fest! The song starts off soft with acoustic guitars and psych guitar embellishments with tribal style bongo percussion. When the vocals come in, it reminds me of “Space Cadet” from Kyuss a little bit. The heavy fuzz distortion is massive when it kicks in and the song transforms into a 70’s inspired acid rock classic. “Outsider” starts with bass and drums and permeates oozing fuzz distortion right after. The groove thickened rock song has a nice sound to it with overdriven vocals and scorching guitar leads. The third track “Kosmic Swell” has a laid back start with a grooving bass line and synthesizing swirls of psychedelia. The clean guitar wankering with the simple drum beat is executed nicely. The song has a progressive increase to a crescendo of rock goodness. The guitar leads are infectious and enhances the drive of the song. The nine and a half minute track is a rocking instrumental mothership of riffs and Hendrix-esc guitar solos. “Vice” is a shorter riff rocking song that reminds me a lot of older Nebula. To The Center and Charged era with a similar Eddie Glass vocal tone also. Free Ride does a great job mixing up the tracks on Acido Y Puto from shorter rockers to longer space jams. “Nazare” combines both psychedelic elements and riff rocking rhythms into a single nine plus minute opus.

Free Ride are very talented musicians. Borja Fresno shreds on the guitar like an acid rocking freak from the seventies. Victor Bedmar is a rock solid bassist who compliments Fresno’s free style leads perfectly. The drumming of Carlos Bedmar is also a strong component to Free Ride. He can shift from style to style to correspond to the flow of the music in any given song. The power trio really gel well together and the great songwriting is the proof of that. “Steamroller” has an old school Fu Manchu crunch to it. The overdriven amplifier sound is matched nicely with the bluesy guitar leads. “Joy” is another banger of a song that carries the riff rocking torch to new heights. One grandiose riff after another with a fury of leads and solos to enhance them all. “Blackout” keeps the rock a rolling and utilizes back up vocals on the chorus. The song transcends into a freak out phase, overlaying spacy synthesizers and guitar leads-a-plenty. The final song on this nine track album is called “Living For Today”. It starts with clean guitar and rocks a fiery lead to overlay the rhythm. The Eddie Glass swagger vocals return on this track and it’s just a cool song through and through. It has a catchy chorus and nice overlays of leads too. The clean acoustic guitar appears again near the end and the song keeps its natural flow until the end, as it fades out.

I was a little surprised on how much I enjoy this album. I wasn’t sure what to expect by the looks of the album cover and all. However, I never judge a book by its cover and the same is true with music. The songs are all fantastic with no filler! Free Ride are locked in to what they’re doing and the band does it very well. They also engineered and recorded the record themselves which is super impressive, especially considering on how great it all sounds.