THE LAMPLIGHTER

I was really looking forward to the follow up of 'The Way', an album that stunned my senses rather surprisingly, not quite expecting a Cuban symphonic prog extravaganza to bowl me over. On first and second audition, I must concur with other reviewers who mentioned the rather odd vocals that grace this fresh release. Let's get one thing straight, the music is spectacular, stately and impossibly brilliant. Being multi-lingual, I appreciate anyone expressing themselves in some other language than their native tongue and I actually enjoyed previous vocalist Carlos Sosa whose accent was only slight but new singer Emmanuel Pirko-Farrath has no command of English whatsoever and sadly, what this does is that it distracts to the point of being too obvious. In view of German national Helmut Koellen's brilliant English language singing on Triumvirat's early albums, where he learnt phonetically to pronounce each lyric properly, I must criticize the choice of a singer who struggles so overtly. Sing in Spanish, hombre! You have a decent voice but mangled words are never enjoyable.

When the mood becomes instrumental, Anima Mundi are easily among the most technically proficient musicians out there, featuring a magnificent keyboardist in Virginia Peraza. She has a strong symphonic inclination by using a tremendous amount of mellotron, synthesizers, organ and piano colorations throughout the arrangements. Bassist Yaroski Corredera provides some expressive bottom ends and occasional runs that are truly defiant. The drums are expertly handled by Jose Manuel Govin, never an issue in Cuba where percussion is a state accepted religion. Guitarist and leader Roberto Diaz is a killer slinger, his searing leads and chugging riffs inspire with abandon and grace. The melodies are grandiose and kaleidoscopic, expertly entertaining and effortlessly complex. The poor vocals kill the joy, though. Unfortunately, they are not few and far between. On 'The Human House', one can plainly feel the ridiculousness of mispronounced words such as 'cam' instead of 'come'. Sorry, but it's unavoidable and they linger like a sour aftertaste. Yet elsewhere on this short track, the playing is superb, go figure!

The pain is best expressed by the woeful rendition of the lyrics on 'His Majesty love', its torture when the words do not even make any sense and the delivery suffers accordingly. The finest moments on this disc is the all instrumental 'The Return-Part1', with its neo- medieval sheen and the bombastic epic segue 'Endless Star' and both are jewels of the very highest order. The latter in particular runs for a good 10 minutes and showcases the immense talent at hand, Peraza doing some masterful work in arranging this colossus of sound and fury. Diaz shows off delirious electric guitar technique that is just off the wall brilliant. The rhythm section just cooks up a tropical storm of musical delight.

Roberto, please invite Carlos back or re-record with someone who has mastered a language (any one of your choice, even Kobaian!) and I will anoint this with 5 cigars. Cover by the amazing Ed Unitsky only deepens my sorrow, for it's a truly stellar package.

3.5 berlitz lessons