DISGUISE SERENADES

"Disguise Serenades" is the debut full-length studio album by Ukrainian progressive rock act Arlekin. The album was independently released in August 2014 (both as a digital download and as a CD digipack). Arlekin was founded around 2005 by Igor Sidorenko, who handles all vocals and instruments on "Disguise Serenades", and a demo was recorded and released in 2008. Sidorenko got preoccupied with some of his other projects like Stoned Jesus and Krobak though, and Arlekin was put in the vault until this year when he found some time and inspiration to record the material in a professional studio.

Sidorenko is known for a wide varity of musical projects and styles (among others stoner rock and post rock), but on the Arlekin project, his focus is on playing neo-progressive rock, greatly influenced by 80s artists like Marillion and IQ, but also by later neo- progressive artists like Collage, Red Sand, and Shadowland. Like on most neo-progressive releases there are also nods toward mid- to late 70s Genesis and even Pink Floyd in the music.

The sound of the music on the 5 track, 41:03 minutes long album probably won´t surprise you if you are familiar with some of the above mentioned artists, and Sidorenko does nothing to hide his influences. It´s not to a point of the album being a tribute release though and the material on the album are generally well written and catchy. It´s keyboard heavy, but the rhythmic playing is solid too and there are also some pretty great guitar playing on the album. Both rhythm and lead. Sidorenko proves to be a pretty good vocalist with a pleasant and relatively convincing delivery. He pretty much sticks to safe ground, and doesn´t make excursions into wild theatrical territories, and it´s always good to know your limits. There´s a slight bit of Peter Gabriel (Genesis, solo) and Fish (Marillion, solo) in his voice and in the way he delivers his vocal lines, but again this is not a tribute, and he does manage to add his own vocal touch to the music.

The sound production is very successful to my ears. It´s professional, clear and detailed, and it´s got the right authentic 80s atmosphere about it too. A journey back to the glory days of neo- progressive rock is guaranteed. Overall "Disguise Serenades" is a quality product by Arlekin, and if you can live with the fact that the album doesn´t exactly bring much new to the genre in terms of an original sound, there´s no reason why you shouldn´t enjoy the high level musicianship, the well sounding production job, and the inspired and clever songwriting, that are on display here. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.