SERRANÍO

It's great to see a Peruvian Band with a five stars average, but in the case of this album is overrated; "Serranio" is a good release but by no way can be compared with Fragil's masterpiece Avenida Larco.

In first place Avenida Larco is a symphonic album recorded with songs from the late 70's with an evident Genesis influence (among others), but absolutely innovative and well developed for a band that up to that point had survived playing excellent cover versions from the Progressive Rock icons.

Serranio is a more eclectic release from the late 80's early 90's, oriented towards Rock, Pop and Neo Prog with a clear black and native indian folk influence, that gives a very special and unique touch but makes it less interesting for the proghead who normally wants something more complex.

The album starts with the mysterious El Abuelo (The Grandfather) that reminds me because of the low toned voice to a famous black Peruvian musician, interesting lyrics and vocals but weak in the melody, strange way to start an album.

]Animales (Animals but in this case with an offensive connotation], a good Neo Prog track with some pop influence, but Andrés Dulude's voice gives the perfect sound, enhanced with the excellent drums by Jorge Durand.

La del Brazo (The girl of the Arm -Free translation-) starts almost as comedy relief song, but develops in a more serious track, at the end is important to notice the keyboards by Octavio Castillo and the bass by Cesar Bustamante.

Aquella Niña (That Small Girl) is an outstanding ballad marked by a very powerful piano and drums, ideal for the voice of Andrés Dulude a very good track followed by the weaker Cuanto Hay (How Much for Me?) a pessimistic song that doesn't make the point at all, starts very strong but becomes repetitive, not even the good keyboards save the song mostly because it doesn't have feet or head.

Como un Loco (Like a Mad Man) a blues oriented track with an excellent guitar work by Luis Valderrama that progressively acquires a very pleasant psychedelic mood in the style of Grand Funk, simple but effective track.

Pilón (Spanish translation for the Popeye character Wimpy) Well, what can you expect from a song dedicated to Andrés Dulude's dog Wimpy? The lyrics are not too interesting, and the music goes with the words, they don't pretend too much, except to have fun and that's OK with me, some great guitar riffs though. Followed by Inquietudes (Restlessness) an average track that IMO is only a filler

It's now the turn for the best track of the album, Huarmi, which means wife in a Mountain dialect from the high Andes called Aymara, extremely beautiful flute, the music is completely atmospheric and the drums create the effect of an echo that comes from some distant and cold mountain, continues with a well known folkloric passage played with quena (Peruvian pentaphonic flute) that suddenly changes in one of the best symphonic passages of the album a complete progressive track that has absolutely everything.

Serranio ends with the self titled track that has no precise English translation, a song that slowly has became a new classic by Frágil, very clearly oriented towards Neo Prog, with a Banks like keyboard and sudden changes, a good way to close this album.

Being Peruvian I wish I could give Serranio at least four stars, but if compared with Avenida Larco or Sorpresa del Tiempo, it's clear that is not as strong.

Three solid stars that could maybe reach 3.5 if this was possible in Prog Archives.