LOS DELIRIOS DEL MARISCAL

I hesitate to gve it another half star (this would only be honorary anyway) but what a difference compared with their debut . Delerios is definitely more successful , more progressive more grandiose than Crucis. Only four tracks and two aside and every succeding number more impressive than its preceding tracks , this finishes in a really interesting finale giving you the envy to get up and turn over the disc and start again with side 1 - (unfortunately playing the Cd on the label side is always a little deceiving). The first two tracks are really good and sometimes reminds me of Focus and Finch but to me Purple and Rooster are still very present from their debut album. Track three , Pollo Frito (fried chicken) starts like a track from one of my fave album of all time Caravanserai (Santana's masterpiece) and one can hear this influence throughout this track and Abismo . Then comes probably my favourite Argentinian number (along with Bubu's Cortejo por Un Dia Amarillo) , Abismo Terrenal (Earth Abysm) which leaves me rather speechless but not enough as to not review the album.

With Crucis, I now close my first delving in South American 70's and early 80's prog (Mia , Bacamarte , Espiritu , Bubu ) but I would say that the better group I found is definitely the Chilean group Los Jaivas: they are not always all that prog - they are first and above all a folk group - but when they decided to be lyrical , grandiose , majestic , progressive , they are simply awesome. They also epitomize best South American spirit with that Andean Indian folk-laced- progressive music.