SOLILOQUIO

About three months after ''Suite mexicana'' Iconoclasta released their third full-length album ''Soliloquio'', this was the seventh and last pressing on their own Discos Rosenbach and the first album to feature guest musicians: another member of the Moreno family, Rosa Echevarria, provides vocals in one track, Alexandro Gonzalez plays flute in another one, Arturo Huizar sings in the same piece, Laura Vazquez also sings in a pair and Jose Luis Romero guests on sax.

''Soliloquio'' consists of four long cuts and the first one in line, the 6-min. ''Cuando la musica era espiritual...'' provides the most symphonic of all sparks delivered by the band so far, an excellent piece of romantic Symphonic Rock with beautiful, operatic female vocals, soaring synthesizers, soft guitars and pianos and some surprising use of bells, a magnificent opener to say the least.The 7-min. ''Solo tu fruto'' follows more or less the same vein, this is very good Symphonic Rock from the 80's with dreamy keyboard parts and GENESIS-styled guitars, supported by crystalline Spanish female vocals and some bombastic sections, somewhat drifting away from the smoother sound of the opener, the style though remains fairly symphonic and pretty progressive.''7:19'' is sung by Arturo Huizar, this one contains some Fusion hints as proposed in the previous works, but the sound of the guitar with the STEVE HACKETT-like chops and solos screams GENESIS, while the later part of the piece contains also some incredible folky flute psychedelics.Very dense and fast music with accurate performances.The 15-min. title-track is another convincing composition by the best Mexican progressive band of the 80's.Dramatic and romantic Progressive Rock, often flirting with the Italian sound of period bands, containing some slight VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR influences during the limited sax and organ lines, the music passes through dreamy and more complex variations, the female vocals are again beautiful and some jazzy hints are detectable throughout.Solid work on a long and emphatic arrangement.

Iconoclasta's fourth work resembles much to the sound of the debut.It's rather closer to GENESIS with strong symphonic overtones overpowering the light jazzy vibes.Great stuff and quite an achievement for 1987.Strongly recommended, reissues are out, including the two tracks from the ''Suite mexicana'' EP...3.5 stars.