TRIANA (EL PATIO)

It had been years since I had heard bit and pieces of Triana and had always wanted to investigate them since I knew of them. On a recent trip to Barcelona, I got this album and a few more that will also be reviewed. I thought I'd start with one of the best- known "prog" album from Spain: El Patio. If I say "prog", it is because many consider this heavily Flamenco-induced rock is definitely progressive to my ears, and will undoubtedly appeal to lovers of heavy melodramatics in their rock music and most likely if you are a Genesis fan, this will please you at least for a few songs. Whether you will be able to listen to the whole album in one session is another matter, because if you are only lukewarm to Flamenco, this can get tedious fairly fast. Such is not my case, but past the last four weeks of listening to it, I must say that it will now take a back seat and will probably not spin regularly in the following years on my deck, since I have now absorbed it, but feel that I have sucked out all of the juices out.

Beyond the impressive artwork sleeve partly responsible for our mood of the moment we choose to play this album, all of the tracks are heavily dramatized and do sound a bit similar (after a month rotation, I still can't tell exactly on which track I am listening in less than twenty second without looking at the counter) and of equal quality - there is not a weaker track on this album. The only slight remark I might have is that around the end of the first track there is a bass-drum break that could've been done without but this last less than a minute, so it is not intrusive. I still have a problem (if you can call THAT a problem) to pick my favourite. As I said earlier, this album is bound to please most progheads, but will the charm operate until the end of the album, since the formula is the same for all seven tracks.

I wonder what this album would've sounded like had it been recorded some years earlier with Mellotrons instead of the ARP Strings synthesisers, but please be assured that the latter one is gorgeously used here, and draws goose bumps almost at every use, but this is hardly the only time you will feel them, since there are many delicious moments. Actually, I would advise you to wear warm clothes for listening to El Patio so you do not suffer from colds after experiencing so many spine chills in a row.