COSES NOSTRES

After their excellent debut Tutankhamon which was more symphonic than fusion, singer- saxophonist Angel Riba left the band and Iceberg stayed as an instrumental quartet. This line-up would remain stable until they broke up in 1980 when Kitflus and Max went on to form catalan fusion supergroup Pegasus together with Fusioon's drummer Santi Arisa and Gòtic's bassist Rafael Escoté. When losing Riba they shifted their style to fully-fledged jazz- rock-fusion, setting out to prove that had they been british or american, they would have been up there together with the likes of Mahavishnu, Return to Forever, Weather Report or Brand X.

This album and their next 'Sentiments' are clearly their best. Much fusion is about the soloing abilities of the band members which is fine, but a key ingredient to full success is not falling prey of only this aspect. Single-instrument improvisation solos need to be balanced by melodic lines, structure, dynamics, multi-instrumental phrases, rythmic diversity and other musical elements. Here is where 'Coses Nostres' and 'Sentiments' stand out, they have it all, the soloing is furious (especially by guitarist Max Sunyer) but there's so much more than that. 'Coses Nostres' is rawer than any of their following albums but it compensates by having deeper passion.

The short opening track 'Preludi i Record' (Prelude and Memory) holds to its name keeping a symphonic bridge to the previous album, then 'Nova' is a furious burst of Mahavishnu-like fusion with killer solos by Max and Kitflus.

'L'acustica' is soft, built on piano and acoustic guitar, for big part in a 13/8 beat, lovely. 'La d'en Kitflus' has Rhodes piano and electric guitar in a fast beat with alternating solos on guitar and keyboards and good dynamics with a calmer part on bass and a crescendo, wonderful stuff.

'La Flamenca Elèctrica' has one of the strongest melodies and an andalusian feel with those major chords shifting one semitone up and down. Their last nod to their symphonic past.

'A Valencia' is another very strong track starting soft but building up to hard fusion moments, and the same can be said of the closer '11/8' which features killer soloing in this time signature.

Possibly not a 5-star album from a total Prog-Rock point of view but undoubtedly a 5-star within the Jazz-Rock-Fusion environment.

The next album 'Sentiments' is technically better and more polished, but this one 'Coses Nostres' has more passion in it. I'm rating both of them with 5 stars so it's up to you which one you want to discover first.