Detailed Reviews [Serpentina Satelite - 2009 - "Nothing to Say"]

Prolusion. SERPENTINA SATELITE is a band hailing from Peru and was founded back in 2003. They made their recording debut one year later, with an EP issued in their local home market. In 2007 they hit the studio to record their debut album, which was issued in 2008 by the German label Trip In Time. The production, named “Nothing to Say“, is described as an EP in the cover leaflet. Due to the total length of the effort it has widely been regarded as a full length effort.

Analysis. There's no doubt about the fact that this act from Peru is familiar with a variety of bans from the '70s exploring a pretty diverse variety of art rock of the psychedelic kind, krautrock and space rock in particular. The opening and closing numbers on this production explore the improvisational varieties of these genres. Structured in a manner pretty similar to what contemporary acts like Oresund Space Collective excel in, both these efforts have a solid foundation set up by bass and drums. On top of these the guitars live a life more or less of their own, providing textures and themes in a neat manner where the dominant role switches between the two guitarists. Unlike many other artists active in this particular stylistic expression, one of the guitars appear to have much more of a dominant role than the other on this occasion though, while the other mostly serves up floating and often fragmented, spacey sounds. What sets this act apart is its overall sound. While the manner of the seemingly improvised efforts has strong similarities to other improvisational space rock bands, their sound has a very strong '70s feel to it, with some similarities to the heavier-sounding efforts of mid '70s Hawkwind, but most of all to early '70s Krautrock bands like Amon Duul II. Closing piece Kommune-1 has most of these traits, while album opener Nueva Ola is somewhat lighter in expression - with a bass guitar that actually made me think of Eloy at times. Wedged in between these two efforts are three shorter numbers, all of them with more of a planned and structured feel to them. The stylistic expression is pretty similar to the improvisational numbers though, but perhaps with a bit more of a heavy space rock sound to them and somewhat less krautrock in the mix. Not that the latter is hard to find, but in these compositions the heavy space rock part of the blend rises just a tad more to the surface. The fact that these tracks are much less improvisational in nature will of course have something to say for this perception.

Conclusion. While there's nothing innovative to be found on this album, all compositions are very well made and performed, and those who enjoy early to mid '70s art rock in the heavier parts of the space rock and krautrock variety have quite a little gem to discover with this effort.

OMB=Olav M Bjornsen: September 7, 2009
The Rating Room