GRASA DE LAS CAPITALES

First, I should say that I consider this to be a Ecletic-Prog release, I am not familiar with the rest of Serú Girán discography to say if the other albums are not prog, but I think that this is certainly a prog album, something that is showed right at the first song, "La Grasa de las Capitales", here we have everything a prog fan could like: rhythm changes, classically oriented sections broke by jazzist moments, mellotrons, synths, all in a song with only 4 minutes.

All songs are short and most of them have some "pop" elements into them, making this an accessible album for non- prog listeners, this is a thing that maybe will turn down some people but I don't think this is a bad thing, in fact, in my opinion, is not an easy task to incorporate progressive elements into songs and still maintain them prog-rock. This is something that great bands like Rush and Caravan do.

Speaking in caravan, this album reminds me much of the canterbury scene, not because the sonority is similar but the feel of the songs is most this soft-rock vibe that can bring some relaxing moments to a stressful day. But don't be fooled, even if is soft and has some accessible moments there are still plenty of complex sections in the songs and creative instrumentation.

Talking about the instrumental, everyone here is awesome, the guitars have incredible solos, the piano sections are technical and beautiful, the drums have plenty of jazzy moments that are so well executed and even the bass have some great lines in some songs. Is easy to see that every member of the band is a top-notch musician. The compositions give space to everyone in the group to have his highlight moment.

The songs are all creative, having some unique elements to make them different from one to another but still maintaining a thematic cohesion in the album. There is the more proggy songs (like the title track and "Canción de Hollywood"), there is ballads (as "Paranoia y Soledad"), psychdelic rock ("Noche de Perros") and even some funky music ("Perro Andaluz").

In my opinion, this is a very solid album with incredible moments and a great example of how to make an album "radio- friendly" and still present some deepness and creativity into it. I recommend it to every prog-rock fan, especially those who are into early progressive stuff and like classic rock too. If you like this album I recommend checking out the other works of Charly Garcia (in "sui generis" and "la maquina de hacer pájaros"), he is probably the greatest prog-rocker of Argentina (and one of the best in South America) and every fan of the genre should listen to it.