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Iman (Spain) - 1980/1994 - "Camino del Aguila" (37 min, Musea) TRACK LIST: 1. La Marcha de los Enfantos 10:30 2. Maluquinha 6:29 3. Camino del Aguila 14:00 4. Ninos 3:05 All tracks: by Rodriguez, except 2: by Mantero & 3: by Mantero, Rodriguez. LINE-UP: Manuel Rodriguez - guitars (+ vocals on 4) Marcos Mantero - keyboards Kiko Guerrero - drums & percussion Urbano Moraes - bass (+ hand percussion on 2) Produced by Iman. Engineered by P. Loeches at "Eurosonic", Spain. Prolusion. The debut from this Spanish band was: "Califato Independiente" (1978). "Camino del Alguila" is their second album. Synopsis. Three out of the four tracks on "Camino del Alguila": La Marcha de los Enfantos, the album's title track, and Maluquinha (tracks 1, 3, & 2 respectively) are instrumental pieces, and the first two of them are long and are similar among themselves stylistically and structurally. The music on both of them develops from melodic Symphonic Progressive of a moderate complexity, through a harsh, highly diverse and complex Classic Symphonic Art-Rock, to an atmospheric Art-Space Rock with strong flavors of music of the East and is marked with frequent changes of a musical direction, the active use of complex stop-to-play movements, and the other essential progressive ingredients. The arrangements on these two are quite intensive and, often, powerful, and a string ensemble, organ, and electric guitar are the main soloing instruments here. The remaining instrumental: Maluquinha is about a blend of Art-Rock and Jazz-Fusion with the parts of electric piano playing a leading role throughout it and slight reminiscences of early Camel. Also, this composition is notable for the active use of hand percussion instruments. The last track on the album: Ninos is the only song here. Unlike those on the aforementioned compositions performed by the entire band, the instrumental arrangements on Ninos feature only passages and solos of acoustic guitar and passages of a string ensemble, and the interplay between them develops by the laws of Classic Symphonic Art-Rock. Vocals are in Spanish and are dramatic in character. If not to count a few episodes on the aforementioned Maluquinha, the music on the album is quite unique and doesn't arouse direct associations with anything. Conclusion. Even though not a complete masterpiece, Iman's "Camino del Alguila" is definitely one of the best among those albums released in 1980 that I heard. So it's time to make corresponding changes into my >Top 10 Albums of that year. VM: September 3, 2003 Related Links: Musea Records

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