Caja de Pandora: Caja de Pandora (198?; Sol & Deneb Records SD01) 51m 
================================================================= 
Sol & Deneb is a new Mexican label specializing in reissuing Mexican prog 
obscurities. Their first reissue is the relatively unknown Mexican band Caja 
de Pandora.  Formed in the '70s, Caja de Pandora, at the time of their sole 
release, consisted of Eduardo J. Medina (drums), Jose Jorge Teran Gomez 
guitars), Antonion Castro Barragan (bass) and Alejandro Lomelin Mora 
(keyboards). Opening with "Apocalipsis," the band seemed firmly rooted in the 
'70s symphonic scene, and comparable to early Iconoclasta. At a little less 
than four minutes, the song seems underdeveloped, compositionally and 
talent-wise. As the album progresses, however, you can hear the band develop 
before your very ears. The third song, "Illusion," begins with a jazzy flair 
and upbeat symphonics that soon erupts into a blistering fuzztone guitar solo 
before slipping back into a more conventional symphonic synth solo. For the 
rest of the album, Caja de Pandora mixes a slightly jazzy approach with more 
usual symphonic stylings. The band managed to stay away from typical Genesis 
and Yes mannerisms, thus finding their own voice. The songs are short, only 
3-5 minutes, yet each manages to explore its theme fully. Particularly nice 
is 
"Luz en la Obscuridad," which features some jazzy guitar and keyboard riffing 
over a walking bass line. Sol & Deneb's reissue contains three bonus tracks 
totalling about 18 minutes of music not on the original LP. The sound quality 
of these three tracks is a little rough but the music is top-notch (better 
than a few of the cuts on the original album) and further elucidates the 
ideas 
found in Pandora's Box.  A nice first reissue for Sol & Deneb. 
 
Delirium: El Teatro del Delirio (1997; Sol & Deneb Records SD02) 54m 
================================================================ 
Another Mexican band, Delirium released a self-titled album in the 1985. _El 
Teatro del Delirio_ contains unreleased material recorded in 1984, prior to 
the material released on Delirium's official debut. Although I have never 
heard _Delirium_, I have heard it is very good. The band must have had some 
reason for scrapping the material contained on _El Teatro del Delirio_ in 
favor of the material that was actually released. _El Teatro_ is not a bad 
album, but the music is rather ordinary and the sound quality is pretty 
dodgy. 
The compositions are perfunctory and forced, as if the band was still getting 
their chops down while fleshing out their musical ideas. For this early 
material, Delirium's musical ideas fall in the symphonic progressive realms 
of 
Genesis. A better comparison might be to a lesser developed version of early 
Iconoclasta, a fellow Mexican band. A nice example is "El Atrio de las 
Animas," which contains some of the band's better playing (for that time). An 
instrumental keyboard/guitar suite, "El Atrio" shifts through a variety of 
tempos and meters as it works through it's seven minute length. Most of the 
nine songs are in the 5-7 minute range and only three have vocals (in 
Spanish). I could see releasing this CD for completists but Delirium were 
never known well enough to have such a devoted following. Otherwise, _El 
Teatro del Delirio_ provides insight into the history of Mexican Prog as a 
whole, but the music is unnecessary for the general Prog fan. 
 
E-mail: soldeneb@data.net.mx 
 
------------------------------ 
 
End of Gibraltar V7 #26 
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