ICEBERG

Non-fans of the genre will likely neither notice that or care much, as it should be. I can't blame them. "Fusion" as it had become was very often a cold, soulless, ironically commercial brand of music, distorted from its raw and fairly humble beginnings with Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock and John McLaughlin into a machine-like parody of itself more often to turn up on AM radio or piped-in at a dentist's office than as the fierce form it was capable of being. It's no wonder a band from Spain would end up keeping the flame of real fusion alive, at least in 1976. I haven't heard Tutankhamon and apparently they were more symphonic, which would put this follow-up in a parallel arc with the whole Phil Collins/Brand X/Genesis jazzrock period (of which much of this reminds, though I prefer Iceberg to any Brand X). Remnants of their symph offerings can certainly be heard in 'Preludi i Record' as it melds with 8&1/2-minute 'Nova(Musica de la Llum)', a textbook Fusion dig that has all the right moves and then some, with blistering volleys between guitarist Suñe and keyboardist Mas, Jordi Colomer's crisp, popping traps, and Primitivo Sancho's utterly reliable and comforting thud on the Fender J Bass. The pretty opening of 'L'acustica' speaks Hancock and continues issuing that master's voice throughout the piece. The familiar tone of a Rhodes piano backbones 'La d'En Kitflus' but is layered with numerous synths and the flavors of seventies tech-funk, as does hip rocker 'La Flamenca Electrica', too long and somewhat drowsy 'A Valencia', and sly beastie '1 1/8 Manifest de la Follia' ends things confidently.

Definitive, authoritative, authentic, Iceberg's Coses Nostres became, perhaps unknowingly, one of the most satisfying examples of, what was then, cutting edge modern music. Fans of Colosseum II, Brand X, early DiMeola, et al., would do themselves a favor to find this puppy. Good stuff, muchachos.

The musicianship is top-notch as ever, and any fusion lover not knowing their previous albums might easily rate this album with 4 or even 5 stars, it's only by comparison to their previous works such as Coses Nostres and Sentiments that I limit my rating of this album to the 3 ? 3.5 stars level.

The formula is still the same, a fantastic rhythm section (Jordi Colomer was really a hell of a drummer and Primi Sancho a great bassist) on which Max and Kitflus develop their melodies and solos, the keyboards taking the more musical side (not forgetting solos either) and Max's guitar taking care of the hardest soloing in the footsteps of McLaughlin or Di Meola. However the general tone is softer, more polished than in their previous albums, and there is a shift towards a more latin sound.

The opener "El Caminant Nocturn" (The Night Walker) is the best track, with Kitflus trademark Rhodes piano, very good melodies and a killer guitar solo by Max followed by a no less impressive synth solo by Kitflus. 5 stars for this song.

"Cantics De La Carn" (The Singing Of The Flesh) is based on a samba-like rhythm, a style I don't fancy much so even if the development is clearly proggy being the longest track clocking at 11:18, and the musicianship outstanding, it drags a bit too much for me. Just a matter of taste, if you can enjoy a prog-samba it can be an excellent track.

"Riu D'Agost" (August River) has a beautiful piano and acoustic guitar intro, then all the instruments come in and develop into a great latin jazz track with piano reminding of Michael Camilo and very good acoustic guitar, and impressive alternating solos of keys and guitar, really great stuff, just a bit too latin for my taste.

"Embrujo" (Enchant) is again latin featuring nice piano parts, a killer guitar solo and a good keys solo too.

"Crisalide" starts atmospheric with piano and acoustic guitar, after 1 min all the instruments come in and it sounds more like their older albums, electric guitar on Rhodes, then some funky feel and a killer guitar solo which sounds like Santana mixed with McLaughlin. If this was not enough we still get a great Rhodes solo, but this is a bit the problem, it's like there's too little melody, just great solos.

In summary 2 thoughts: 1. this album is undoubtedly good and has terrific solos but fewer and weaker melodies than their previous albums. 2. There is a clear shift to a more latin style, this is a purely personal taste matter but personally I prefer the previous more standard fusion style.

Side A in the LP is by far the best and consists actually of 2 songs which have been merged as a single 18 min track on CD. "Oh, Un Anec Simfonic!" (Oh, A Symphonic Duck!) is the first 9 min section, it starts funky but gradually gets more proper fusion, with good melodic lines. Then the soloing section comes, first with a powerful guitar solo by Max Sunyer but less aggressive than his solos in the album Coses Nostres, followed by the synth solo by Kitflus. At 8:00 it gets soft again showing good dynamics before ending at 9:13 minutes. The second 8:45 section is the song "Ones" (Waves), a great mellower track with nice melodic phrases, alternating guitar and keyboard solos which after a crescendo merge into synchronized soloing, again very good dynamics, reminds me of Brand X. The playing ability of the guys is as impressive as always and the rythmic section terrific, especially the drumming of Jordi Colomer.

Side B is still very good but relatively weaker showing the trend which would continue in Arc- En-Ciel, less melody and more soloing, and a more standard jazz-rock feel and less fusion. "Cancó Per Qualsevol Orquestra" (A Song For Any Orchestra) follows this more straightforward jazz-rock direction, the beginning reminds a bit of the Dixie Dregs, it has good alternating solos of guitar and keyboards but it lacks melody and passion. The last track "Histories" (Histories) is based on a fast drumming rhythm, half samba and half Dixie Dregs bluegrass, it has good structure with a calmer section, crescendo, rhythm breaks, synchronized soloing and coda to the main fast theme, but overall it lacks a bit of inspiration. The album ends very oddly with a fade-in-and-out of some 30 seconds from their track "La Flamenca Electrica" from the album Coses Nostres, one of their best known melodies, but I have never understood what it does here, probably because after listening to 4 tracks which nobody knew before, it serves to remind that we were listening to an Iceberg album.

Very good fusion but less good that their first 3 albums.

As with many fusion records, much of this album relies on soloing displays, but there's still a lot of variation and quality to keep the listener's attention.

The short 'Sentiments' opens with a haunting middle east atmosphere, you could nearly say that Dream Theater took here an inspiration for the beginning of Metropolis Pt. 2 'Home'.

'Andalusia, Andalusia' has a bit of everything, mid-tempo fusion, mediterranean feel, tempo breaks, a shift to samba-like rhythm, alternating and synchronized solos etc. It even feels like some Dixie Dregs tune at moments.

'A Sevilla' displays again great dynamics with a beautiful piano intro and then guitar & keyboards melody, tempo breaks, alternate furious solos etc.

'Ball De Les Fulles' is a mid-tempo track with always amazing drumming, bass and soloing, and a similar pattern follows with 'Magic' which has great solos on a groovy main beat.

'Joguines'is probably the most distictive song, very mediterranean with clean guitar and piano.

Their best album in my opinion although you should also check at the very least their previous 'Coses Nostres', these two are very close to eachother in overall quality.

This album and their next 'Sentiments' are clearly their best. Much fusion is about the soloing abilities of the band members which is fine, but a key ingredient to full success is not falling prey of only this aspect. Single-instrument improvisation solos need to be balanced by melodic lines, structure, dynamics, multi-instrumental phrases, rythmic diversity and other musical elements. Here is where 'Coses Nostres' and 'Sentiments' stand out, they have it all, the soloing is furious (especially by guitarist Max Sunyer) but there's so much more than that. 'Coses Nostres' is rawer than any of their following albums but it compensates by having deeper passion.

The short opening track 'Preludi i Record' (Prelude and Memory) holds to its name keeping a symphonic bridge to the previous album, then 'Nova' is a furious burst of Mahavishnu-like fusion with killer solos by Max and Kitflus.

'L'acustica' is soft, built on piano and acoustic guitar, for big part in a 13/8 beat, lovely. 'La d'en Kitflus' has Rhodes piano and electric guitar in a fast beat with alternating solos on guitar and keyboards and good dynamics with a calmer part on bass and a crescendo, wonderful stuff.

'La Flamenca Elèctrica' has one of the strongest melodies and an andalusian feel with those major chords shifting one semitone up and down. Their last nod to their symphonic past.

'A Valencia' is another very strong track starting soft but building up to hard fusion moments, and the same can be said of the closer '11/8' which features killer soloing in this time signature.

Possibly not a 5-star album from a total Prog-Rock point of view but undoubtedly a 5-star within the Jazz-Rock-Fusion environment.

The next album 'Sentiments' is technically better and more polished, but this one 'Coses Nostres' has more passion in it. I'm rating both of them with 5 stars so it's up to you which one you want to discover first.

"Oh ! Un Anec Simfonic Ones" is the almost 18 minute opener.The home crowd can be heard cheering wildly as the album starts. It then turns quiet as the guitar comes in followed by bass, drums then synths.This actually reminds me of BRAND X here. A calm after 2 1/2 minutes as the piano leads.You can hear the crowd cheering in the background.The sound builds and this does sound pretty amazing. Love the guitar. Another calm with synths before 7 1/2 minutes as the crowd noise becomes evident once again. It builds and we get some ripping guitar 8 1/2 minutes in then it's like the song ends but then they start up again with a different melody before 10 1/2 minutes.This is more laid back.It settles more 12 minutes in then the guitar starts to light it up 13 1/2 minutes in. It settles back again 15 1/2 minutes in.Great tune !

"Canco Per Qualsevol Orquestra" has a bit of a funky rhythm to it. Piano before 2 minutes then the guitar leads. Piano is back as they take turns leading.

"Histories" is the almost 11 minute closer.This actually reminds me most of what I like about this band. Cheering to start then atmosphere with piano to for about a minute, then the guitar and drums kick in hard. Great sound here. Synths to the fore at 4 minutes.The guitar is back after 5 1/2 minutes and he proceeds to rip it up. A calm after 8 minutes with atmosphere then it kicks back in again. It ends before 10 minutes but then they return for a short piece that seems to end abruptly.

Just simply some killer playing on this one and it's cool to hear these new tracks as well.

Music in general is softer,more rounded (Latin) version of Mahavishnu Orchestra sound with some excurses to more mellow (sometimes on the border with cheese) melodies. But if guitarist speed and energy are both attractive, main problem is composition. You will hardly find few tunes in all album. Guitarist is very happy demonstrating his abilities, but too often it sounds as jazz-fusion axe-hero, not real fusion musician.

Another problem is some Latin pop-jazz inclusions: as the result all album combines ultra- fast guitar technique demonstration, with melodic almost pop-Latin tunes in between. And if some moments there are really nice and interesting, the whole work isn't such a good product.