COM.UNIÓN

Very interesting release by this prolific mexican band. I heard they played a kind of neo prog sound and I looked for their CDs. I got a couple of them and to be really fair I just didn´t like them. They played neo prog, alright, but the songs were rather ragged and disjoined, so I didn´t even bother to review them. But I could not believe a band with so many CDs was bad all the way, so after some time I decided to take chances with their latter material. that´s when I bought Com.Union. And I was rewarded. But they sound did change a lot.

First of all they are much more symphonic and jazz rock oriented now than anything I´ve heard. The inclusion of Pepe Flores on wind instruments certainly helped to give the album a certain King Crimson flavour here and there, but the structures of the songs are also different. The album is quite varied with bombastic moments followed by some quiter passages. Some are even a bit chaotic (hence some KC connections again), but not very often. They also included much more latin rhythms on the mixture. The result is a highly enjoyable, creative music. Most of the time it works. But on a 70 minute CD it would be surprising not to find some flaws. Amazingly they are few.

The band also decided not to sing in english anymore. And I think this was a right move, for the spanish languague sounds very well on this kind of music. Dino Brassea´s voice is not very outstanding but it fits just right. Besides, the addition of a female singer (Lupita Vidales) on some tracks did improved the vocal department a lot. The tracks that have both singers are the best ones.

Conclusion: a very strong release. I believe the band found its personality and very own sound. I liked it very much and I´m looking forward to hear Com.Union´s follow ups. Although not perfect in any way, I thought it was unfair not to give the CD less than 3,5. So something between that and 4 stars is more adequate. Recommended.