TRIANA (EL PATIO)

A couple of years ago I heard about TRIANA for the first time, and the opinions were contradictory, most people recommended me "Triana (aka El Patio)" but I was only able to get "Hijos del Agobio" which is nothing but extraordinaire, so I let the time pass until this week when I was able to get "El Patio", so here I'm reviewing it.

The first impression is that the quality is there, but I feel they were still looking for their natural sound, if "Hijos del Agobio" blends perfectly the spirit of Andaluz music with Symphonic Prog without even being able to notice any patch, but in this case (and without being bad at all) the patches can be felt, but that's something they solved with experience.

"Abre la Puerta" begins with a Flamenco guitar, piano and Mellotron introduction which lead directly to a very dramatic passage of extreme beauty with Eduardo Rodriguez sharing his skills in the vein of Segovia. The vocals by Jesus de La Rosa are perfect for the music as always, but something is missing, the effect of the fusion of styles never gets completed, there's always an evident preeminence of Symphonic or Flamenco without reaching the perfect blend in such a natural as in their second album. Still it's a fantastic song.

"Se de un Lugar" starts with the classical "Cante Hondo" (Deep Singing) of Jesus de la Rosa, soon followed by an exquisite acoustic guitar that backups him perfectly, and then the variation starts, guitars and keys add a special Symphonic flavor without ever leaving completely the Spanish - Moorish atmosphere, with a Moog that gives a special taste

But when you believe everything will flow with normality and without any surprise, TRIANA hits us with all the heavy artillery, entering into Rock territory with some special effects that fades and resurrects in a some instants to allow the Flamenco guitar to come back again. From this point I believe they went a bit over the top, with radical changes that don't fully convince me, somehow lacks a bit of coherence, as if they tried to make too many things in a short period of time.

"Todo es de Color" is a short song in which guitar and voice blend perfectly, this is not Prog territory, we're talking about pure Ethnic music with some effects, still is impressive because it works as an Andaluz interlude to prepare us for the next track.

"Luminosa Mañana" starts very promising and at last I find a perfect fusion of styles, this time the Spanish atmosphere blends perfectly with some sort of Psychedelic organ riff which is extremely dramatic, this is what I expected of the band and not disappointed at all,

"Diálogo" has a weird intro that mixes a couple of simple keyboard chords with some acoustic guitar, but the band goes "in crescendo" rising not only in volume but also adding vocals and more instruments as if they were preparing us for a huge explosion..And the explosion starts with the Moog but fades again and incredibly they start all over until the ecstasies reaches at last, it took them some time, but hey achieved the goal.

"En el Lago" starts soft again with guitar and keyboards, almost instantly the drums and vocals join with a moody organ that creates a Psyche mood, but the arrangements lack of the coherence they only achieved in their next release, seems as they were not ready to create a full Prog - Ethnic creation, but it's clear they were in the right path, because the final section is simply outstanding.

TRIANA closes "El Patio" wit the FANTASTIC "Recuerdos de una Noche", if it was only for this track, the album would be already worth to buy, the mixture of genres, styles, moods and atmospheres is perfect, this is what I wanted to listen all along the album but only received short doses until now. "La Piece de Resistance"

Until this last track I was ready to give "El Patio" only three stars, but despite the minor flaws it's obvious that we are before an excellent album and "Recuerdos de una Noche" is the delicious cherry over the cake, so 4 stars for this excellent album and the need to modify my "Hijos del Agobio" review to 5 stars because that's the peak of the band without any doubt.

Would be recommended to start with this album and then get Hijos del Agobio being that it's the natural way to listen a band that was towards their highest artistic, creative and emotional moment.