Santana is largely an exercise in rhythm. Lots of drums and drumming. Santana apparently noticed that rock audiences inevitably go berserk at the slightest sign of a drum solo. Why not triple their pleasure? Give them drums plus congas plus timbales! The fact that all of them are terrible will never be noticed. The incompetence of each will cancel out the incompetence of the others.

On top of this is the work of the guitar and organ. Carlos Santana has stumbled upon a tired and mechanical guitar lick which he likes so well that he plays it in virtually every song. It's even possible that it was recorded only once and then overdubbed wherever the engineers thought it would fit. You'll know it when you hear it. Gregg Rolie contributes his share of redundancy with some organ solos which sound like Earl Grant rejects. His tone reminds one of nothing so much as the noise made by that guy in junior high who used to scratch the blackboard with his finger-nails.

The vocals on such songs as "Evil Ways" do little justice even to these paltry lyrics. Columbia, incidentally, slipped up on this one and did not include a libretto. Here it is. Go-Ba-Ba Go-Ba-Ba Go-Ba-Ba, Lumpa Thumpa, Boom Boom, Bang Bang, Thump Thump.

And the engineering! Along with the loudness of the drumming it almost makes you forget how bad the music is. Super slick. The instrumentals like "Waiting" and "Soul Sacrifice" are all well balanced and mixed. But that's the story of this whole effort. It is a masterpiece of hollow techniques.

On the day this record was released newscasters gave considerable coverage to a big fire that filled the sky with billowing clouds of smoke and brilliant flames. It took crews of firemen eight hours to control it, but there was little damage. All that, yet the fire had done almost nothing. The parallel between it and this album is obvious.

One can't help wondering how many takes Santana required on each song before it was "perfect," how long they spent mixing it until everything was just right, and yet how little they accomplished. It will pay off. The album will sell very well. People who buy it will play it night and day for a week, then most will file it away under "S" and forget about it. If they saw through it, though, they'd skip the first three steps and just forget about it altogether.