CALIFATO INDEPENDIENTE

IMAN CALIFATO INDEPENDIENTE were a four piece band from Spain playing a symphonic/jazz style of music. This is their debut from 1978 and they would follow this one up with their final release in 1980 which I like better. There are vocals on here provided by the bass man but there's not a lot of them. This is very much synth led with an excellent bass player. Yes, there's plenty of guitar provided by Manuel Rodriguez who had previously been in GOMA who released one album in 1975.

The bio here states that the band's origins came at a convention by a meditation guru that they all attended. I would not connect this music with that dynamic, but hey they all lived in one house and it would certainly help that they were on the same page as far as their lifestyles goes. We get four tracks worth around 42 minutes.

The opener at almost 21 minutes really sets the tone for me. And it's not a good tone. From the almost silence to start this record off to distant children's choir that slowly increases in volume until I can at least hear it properly, I just found this whole suite like this. Those almost silent or very quiet calms. It's almost 3 minutes into this song before we get normal volume sounds. Starting off on the wrong foot as they say. This is so slow in developing that it's almost 7 minutes before we get a consistent melody.

"Darshan" at 8 1/2 minutes doesn't do a lot for me either. I do like that lush melody to start. This is mellow stuff but it will get more energetic with synths leading. "Cerro Alegre" is probably my favourite. Piano and acoustic guitar to start but when the electric guitar arrives I'm smiling. Piano and bass then lead after 3 minutes before it slows right down. I like the section where it picks back up with guitar leading again. It settles late. The closer is the shortest song at 5 1/2 minutes and it's fairly mellow to be honest, and features some reserved vocals. Both the vocals and sound turn more passionate before settling again. It's very symphonic sounding to end it.

I'm going against the grain here with the 3 stars but this is not a 4 star record in my music world. Their next record is closer to that rating though.

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