LOS DELIRIOS DEL MARISCAL

Second masterpiece in Crucis' résumé: "Los Delirios del Mariscal" finds the band exploring their jazzy trend further, in this way, allowing all musicians to expand on their own individual inputs while maintaining a robust sonic unity. The keyboard department is benefited from a major presence of synthesizer parts: for the band as a whole, this specific factor helps it to achieve a larger degree of energy in their performances (an energy that had already been awesome in their epnymous album). Actually, the album kicks off with a symphonic-oriented sung track, 'No Me Separen de Mí', which may give the fresh listener a wrong impression about the album's overall direction. This pleasant existentialist song has a similar mood to "Moon Madness"-era Camel, and it mostly serves as an initial, refreshing relief before the impressive catalogue that lies ahead in the immediate horizon. The 10-minute title track is an ethereal progressive journey authored by keyboardist Kerpel. Things flow very smoothly while the band expands itself through the evocative reiterations of the recurring main motif, with Marrone providing delicately soaring leads that beautifully complement the string synth layers - he sounds a bit like Santana-meets-Akkerman. After 7 and a half minutes, there is a clever shift that leads to a new motif, a more energetic one, which sounds almost like a soundtrack for a Western movie. This motif is punctuated by Marrone's precise harmonic soloing and Kerpel's inventive adornments, while the rhythm duo sustains it with clever staccato and syncopation. 'Pollo Frito' and 'Abismo Terrenal' occupied the B- side of the vinyl edition, and may I add that these two tracks contain (arguably) the most inspired performances ever produced by these astonishing musicians. The former of these two has a more constructed frame, since it is based on the fluid articulation of some well-defined motifs; the improvisations never lose touch with the logic inherent to the specific musical ideas. On the other hand, 'Abismo Terrenal' is a fiery 12 ½ minute tour-de-force that is structurally sustained by a minimal series of main motifs - the whole extra stuff is alternately left for each individual musician to develop while stealing the momentary limelight, most of the times with the other partners following through, or, as it happens in the case of Montesano and Farrugia's solo moments, in which they shine alone (particularly, the latter). There is a large dose of self-indulgence here, no doubt about it, but the solidness of all performances is ultimately founded on the interaction between all band members, so the pyrotechnics never falls into the void of chaos: somehow, a sense of order prevails all over this display of free expression and technical exhibitionism. The repertoire of this album is less structured than that of the debut, since as - I stated before - the band is now more determined to focus on jamming and improvisation. This sense of mutual challenge helps "Los Delirios del Mariscal" to provide an excellent testimony of what these excellent musicians could do for themselves and for each other at their prime - yet another masterpiece of Latin American 70s prog.