AVENIDA LARCO

Frágil was one of the most transcendent groups on the Peruvian scene of the eighties, and even to this day their debut album Av. Larco is still considered one of the best and most iconic albums of the national rock bands of all time.

Av. Larco is generally composed of short songs about urban themes, provided with great intensity and elaborate rhythmic sections, which are identifiable references of the English groups that influenced the members of the band (Yes, Genesis, among others), and whose discs arrived in Peru during the nationalist military dictatorship of the seventies.

Despite the very good level and great versatility of the musicians who recorded Av. Larco (the powerful voice of Andrés Dulude, the bass line of César Bustamante, and the progressive guitar of Luis Valderrama), I must especially highlight the notable contribution of Octavio Castillo, not only for his fundamental keyboard-work but also for the entire structure of the album, giving it a characteristic and unique sound.

Excellent themes such as the atmospheric and introspective Mundo Raro, linked by the keyboard as a common thread to the dynamic Pastas, Pepas y Otros Postres, the wonderful halftime of Floral, the ballad Hombres Solos (El caiman), or the parade-like Oda la Tulipan, are essential to understand the importance of Frágil in the history of local rock.

But without any doubt, the song that gives the album its name, Av. Larco is Frágil's anthem par excellence. Preceded by the enormous and magnificent Obertura introduction, in less than 4 minutes the adrenaline flows through the veins of Av. Larco. From its incisive initial keyboard, it travels vertiginously through excellent instrumental and vocal development, to vanish among the police sirens in the dawn after a long and eventful weekend night. Simply extraordinary.

Probably the fact of being an album in Spanish made it less possible to access the English-speaking market extensively, but Av. Larco is undoubtedly a monumental album and 100% recommended, especially for those who enjoy the more symphonic side of rock music.