REMINISCENCIAS

Iconoclasta's second album 'Reminiscencias' is most certainly a must, with the repertoire reaching artistic perfection in so many passages all throughout the album. The fivesome follow in the footsteps of their previous effort, if only emphasizing the symphonic aspect quite a bit. This approach makes sense since it is a concept disc, centered on the evolution of techonology and its subsequent determining role in the degradation of the environment: the goal is to articulate a whole repertoire with the pomp and circumstance usually required in cases such as this. 'La Gestación de Nuestro Mundo' serves as a tasteful intro, with a very inspired Rosa Moreno majestically leading the theme on grand piano. Track 2 sounds like 'The Geese and the Ghost'-meets-'In that Quiet Earth': it's a mixture of atmospheric synths, folky acoustic guitar chord progressions, and electric lead guitar textures, working effectively upon a laid-back rhythm section that at times borders subtly on jazz-fusion. On the other hand, track 3 shows Iconocasta at their most fiery: the bombast that fills every pore of this track sets the perfect ambience for the alternate guitar and organ solos, giving the listener the impression that the guys of ELP entered momentarilly into the ranks of Yes to play some lost track from the 'Relayer' sessions. Fantastic as is is bombastic, this track makes an impressive sonic portrait of modern society's frenzy. The seven part suite 'Reminiscencias de un Mundo sin Futuro' manages to comprise the different moods conveyed respectively in each one of the previous tracks all through its 17- minute duration, making it a perfect compendium of the whole album as a unit. Despite the little presence of vocals (there's a chorale section somewhere), the listener may notice a certain dramatism in the compositions contained in the suite, which is no surprise given the apocalyptical nature of its subject. Almost perfect... if not perfect, so here comes my diagnose: "an excellent item that should be part of any prog collection".

(Review dedicated to my Mexican brothers Alfredo Tapia and Martín Hernández)

Well this Mexican band is a strange ensemble, being able at the beginning to produce excellent albums like this one, by alternating the best moments of creativity, instead replacing afterwards these latter with other colourless and more pop oriented songs, especially in their recent production. But coming back to the present issue, this is probably their most inspiring work, enriched with bombastic music passages ELP-like (listen to "La era de los metabolismos tecnológicos ") or also with delicate and sometimes folk breaks through, well interrupted by symphonic melodic passages,which remind me of "In that Quite Earth" by Genesis. The long 36 minute suite is never boring, cause They have been able to change the mood and atmosphere too, regarding of the whole development of such concept, and at the end They have performed (unfortunately not all along their career) a better job than the Mexican "Cast", thanks to concepts like this!!.However I like to regard this one as a well worth album to be checked out and it never minds for the disappointing pop songs of nowadays...recommended anyway!!

Although ICONOCLASTA might not be the best prog rock band out there, I have to admit they came at a time when prog rock was at its low point, and provided some good music during a time when such groups like MARILLION ruled the prog world, and the big name acts like YES and GENESIS went commercial. Their music really did provide an alternative to those who might have not been too keen on the neo-prog scene, like MaARILLION, as their music hailed to the classic '70s prog sound. Even '70s keyboards like string synths are used here. This was their second album, from 1985 and is often regarded as the companion to their debut, released two years earlier. The lineup is still the same, with duo guitars of Ricardo Moreno and Ricardo Ortegon, with Ricardo Moreno's sister, Rosa Moreno on keyboards, Nohemi D'Rubin on bass, and Victor Baldovinos on drums. Produced much the same way and sounding more '70s than '80s, although some mid '80s digital synths started surfacing here, it's still used in a non- intrusive manner, and surprisingly '70s string synths are used here. The cover to the album is rather sinister looking, with these deformed figures, and the back cover looking like Mexico City in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Being from 1985 and still during the cold war, not to mention the country to the north of them (USA) was under the Reagan administration, this album showed the band's concern about nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war. But the album is largely instrumental, so you won't be hearing them sing (in Spanish) about nuclear war, just sticking to the prog rock they do best.

The opening cut, "La Gestación de Nuestro Mundo" is a rather sinister sounding piece, full of scary sound effects and sinister sounding piano. The next piece, "El Hombre Sobre la Tierra" is really lighthearted and a big shocker after the dark tone of the opening cut, this one has flute (not sure who is playing it), with the fuzz tone of Ricardo Ortegon's guitar" onmouseover="window.status='guitar'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">guitar. "La Era de los Metabolismes Tecnológicos" is a more aggressive number, dominated by guitar and synthesizers. The album closes with the side-length "Reminiscencias de un Mundo sin Futuro", which goes through several movements, with choir on some passages, and the only place you'll find vocals. A nice album, and definately a lot better than what their better known prog contemporaries were doing at the time (like "90125" or the self-entitled 1983 GENESIS album).

My rating: 3 stars and half

Their finest and best work!

If you dont know, Iconoclasta is maybe one of the most representative bands in the prog scene in Mexico, is one of the pioneers ,of course not the first, buy maybe the first to envolv show a blend of musical imagination, very creative passages where we can listen from jazzy tones, through folkish sounds to symphonic rock. Im sure that maybe this is one of the most well known mexican bands around the world, and it has to be because of some works like this.

This is their second album, compared with the first (another great album) this has a more mature sound, a bit more challenging, an album where we can listen to their particular techniques and musicianship, in some passages showing us perfect arrangements making the album enjoyable. I havent listened to a couple of Iconoclasta`s albums yet, but for which i know, this is my favorite, because i found a more creative sound perfectly texturized. Reminiscencias was released in 1985 as the book says but actually it was released in 1986 after 11 long months of work, produced by themselves (1985 was the year of that awful earthquake, the year when i was brought to this world), and of course when Re-Birth of prog rock was in it`s apogee with Neo Prog bands.

This is a concept album, which express a posture totally anti - nuclear, anti - war, a pacifist posture. "La Gestacion de Nuestro Mundo" is the first song, which is a beautiful entrance plenty of piano and synths sounds , making some strange noises using instruments such as gong and chinise bells, giving to it a nice sound.

"El Hombre Sobre la Tierra" is a great 89 minute song, this song in particular mix jazz folk and symphonic passages, remind me to some Focus IV passages,here we can listen to the ordinary instruments, i mean guitar and bass more than others, it is a nice slow tempo song,with also good atmospheres.

"La Era de los Metabolismos Tecnologicos" is an awesome song, im sure this song shows a clear ELP influence, bass and keys in it`s highest point, this song is faster, with some tempo changes and with a very particular guitar sound and the best drums in the album, also this song has another particular point, a choir, a group of both men and women gathered as a choir, making a great vocal work.

"Reminiscencias de un Mundo sin Futuro", oh man, what an incredible song, it is a 18 minute epic, im sure that it is the first epic made by a mexican band (chronologically), im not sure if it was the first ever created, but believe me is great, is something like all the songs` characteristics gathered here, great changes during the song, in fact it is divided in 7 sections, somewhere about 10th minute we can listen to the first word of the album, female vocals appearing in a short time, singin a few but deep words, the voice is also great, musically this song has a blend of different textures and sounds, acoustic guitar is great, in fact all here is great, i wont get enough of it.

After listened to it several times, im sure that this album is great,im sure that it could be great for you all, symph , jazz and prog fans, i really love it, as i said above i think this is my favorite and maybe this is their finest and most beautiful work. I highly recommend it, give it a try and enjoy it, im sure this has been one of the best prog albums ever created in Mexico.

Really 4.5 stars...

Two years after their great self-titled debut Mexican veterans Iconoclasta offered their sophomore effort ''Reminiscencias''.And nothing seems to have changed actually.The line-up remained the same, more or less an affair of the Moreno family tree, while the album was released on their own Discos Rosenbach label.

This time the band chose to deliver an even more symphonic style compared to their debut, which is actually a good thing considering the great talent within the band, but the new effort lacks the great energy of their debut with the short opening ''La Genestacion de Nuestro Mundo'' sounding more like a piano-based introduction than a complete arrangement.''El Hombre Sobre la Tierra'' is a smooth Symphonic Rock piece, carefully structured with a very dreamy atmosphere, following once more a GENESIS/STEVE HACKETT influence.Elegant flutes, background symphonic synths and HACKETT-ish guitar hooks all the way.''La Era de los Metabolismos Tecnologicos'' is propably the most dynamic track of all.Nice Symphonic/Fusion with plenty of keyboard solos, deep bass lines and decent guitar work, but overall rather chaotic and slightly abstract.The 17-min. ''Reminiscencias de un Mundo sin Futuro'' is the virgin attempt by the band to create a long prog epic.The result is partly succesful.This composition contains all of the Iconoclasta trademarks.Dreamy symphonic keyboards, HACKETT-ish guitar workouts, a very strong rhythm section, while you should add the acoustic break and the following female chant to complete the whole atmosphere.But sometimes these pieces do not sound that tightly connected, while the epic lacks a trully killer melody to rely upon.

Only the second track recalls the fantastic inspiration of Iconoclasta's debut.The rest of the album is also good, but not at the same level of their first release,with a few black holes here and there.Recommended overall, especially if taking into consideration the dark age of its release.

Iconoclasta is a Mexican Progressive Rock band which exists since 1980, which I consider a real "record" in survival years for a Mexican band, and more for a band in this musical style. Believe it or not, I only listened to a song from this band only once, maybe on a Mexican TV musical programme, many years ago. I wasn`t interested then, because they sounded to me as a band very influenced by Classical Music arrangements. So, I saw their albums in some record shops in my city several times many years ago without being really interested in buying them. But, I found this album in youtube so I listened to it twice and I found it very interesting. So, yesterday, I visited the websites of two Mexican record shops. For my surprise, I couldn`t find their albums there, with the exception of a very expensive import (!) CD copy. Anyway, they have their own record label and it gives them the musical freedom to do what they want, which is a very good thing for them.

As I expected, the members of this band are all musicians who formally studied in musical schools. At least I think so, because they are very good musicians who really sound like knowing a lot about musical theory and technics about how to play their instruments. All of the musicians really show to really know how to express themselves very well using a lot of "musical and technical vocabulary" which obviously the formal musical training can provide. At the same time, I think that the composition of the songs in the album, the same as the arrangemements, really were a hard work and I think that both things really took them a long time, and they really sound like they rehearsed the songs a lot. So, as a band they sound very well. The album is a concept album with a statement against nuclear war and with some ecological messages. The music at the start of the album is almost "quiet" but with the passing of time it becomes more heavy and complicated, with some changes in time signatures which sound very well. There is also the presence of two female members, and there are some very good femalel vocal choral arrangements in some parts, and a female lead singer who sings like she is singing an "opera aria".I couldn`t understand the lyrics despite they are sung of Spanish, and this female solo vocals are brief. All the members in this band really shine in their performances, but particularly Victor Baldovinos is a very good drummer.

The musical influences from other bands are inevitable. I think that their musical influences are from bands like Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco, ELP and King Crimson, but at the same time they have their very own recognizable musical style which shows their Mexican roots very well.

I think that the recording I listened from this album in youtube was taken from a LP copy, so the sound is not very good. But the recording and mixing of this album is very good, with maybe the passing of time showing that it sounds a bit dated. Anyway, this is a very good album from a very good Mexican Progressive Rock band.