CONQUISTA

After spinning this a few times I decided to check out opinions and I was shocked to find out that this band is from Guatemala. I thought from the title and the Spanish vocals that they were maybe from Spain but I did not see this coming, that they are from a civil war torn country and despite this these guys became a success. And without compromising their music as they play a complex symphonic style with lots of tempo changes and they are constantly changing things throughout most tracks. So impressive then the vocals for some reason bring RPI to mind, I was just drawn to their sound right away.

They were most active in the 80's starting with their debut in 1980 and releasing six records during that decade including this one "Conquista" the sophomore release from 1981. They released a couple of more albums in the 90's and then a break, then two more in the 00's before the most recent 2023 recording. They became quite popular in the whole of central america singing about topics the locals could relate to and they became a hit on local radio stations despite not playing commercial music at least not on their first several releases apparently. This is consistently good, no weak songs and a large seven piece at this point with a few multi- instrumentalists. Violin and guitar tend to solo the most here especially the violin.

I like that the album's strength to me is the middle section even though the opener and closer are very good I like tracks three to five the most. The opener reveals a band who is extremely proggy as they show their chops and the complexity of the music. Track two is sentimental and really a beautiful piece with the soft vocals and sounds. The closer sort of combines the first two tracks and RPI came to mind in spades during the mellow bits. There's something special about that fourth track "Hoy" my favourite and while the song before it(which is the title track) is almost as impressive and in some ways more so I prefer "Hoy". I should have mentioned we get some sax on this record but more flute and three of them play keyboards too.

I'm still astounded at where they live but more impressed at the talent involved in this adventerous music. Easily 4 stars.

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