Tracklist: Introducció (1:16), La Presa (7:24), Waiting Room (10:24), Hit (5:05), Dire: From Serengethi To Taklamakan (5:49), Fertil Crescent (8:33), Estricnina (4:54), Serveix-me Un Altre Got De Vi (7:47), Coda (5:05), Çet (6:13)

Historically the Moors certainly left their mark on Spain, both in terms of culture as well as architecture. This influence seems to have also left an impact within various musical spheres, with one of these bands being Alquilbencil. Formed in 1997, this Barcelona based band is composed of Carlos Rojo (guitars), Ricard Pons (bass), Alex Alguacil (keyboards), Oriol Jimenez (sax, vocals), and Marti Ocaña (drums) and From Serengethi To Taklamakan is their second full length release.

As the name of the album implies, this is indeed a journey through a myriad of musical spheres reaching out to all corners of the musical world. One can find almost all of progressive rock's classical influences thrown in together with a variety of traditional hooks, many of which have a Middle Eastern flair to them whilst at other times one can even pick up a more Central European flair

The opening Introducció gives the band a decisive Canterbury touch with their combination of saxophone and guitars. This is definitely one of the striking features of this interesting band as they flit from one solo to another with constant interchanging between various instruments. Furthermore they are no strangers to constant shifts in time signature allowing the band to create various variations around a similar theme throughout each track.

As already mentioned, the band also manage to infuse an element of folk music, much in evidence on tracks such as La Presa. On La Presa the band manage to create two strikingly different parts to this track as the track originally starts off where they had left off on Introducció with the Canterbury touch, to then taper off into a much lighter jazzier feel wherein the sax touches on various traditional folk tunes.

Apart from Canterbury bands such as Soft Machine and Hatfield And The North, King Crimson also seem to have had a profound effect on Alquilbencil. This is evident in the their use of rhythm as the main medium of conveying the musical message as happens on tracks such as Hit and Çet.

Dire: From Serengethi To Taklamakan is possibly the most "traditional" Alquilbencil can get with their combination of guitar, keyboards and sax giving a Klezmatic feel to the music. One cannot place the music as originating from a definite continent as happens with other bands. Instead Alquilbencil seem to have taken a number of hooks from different cultures and placed them together under one umbrella. Estricina, has a Mediterranean touch, almost Greek in rhythm, whilst the light-headedness of Serveix-me Un Altre Got De Vi with its swing feel adds a dose of lightness to the rather more serious approach of most other tracks.

From Serengethi To Taklamakan is not just about weird progressions coupled with the occasional folk interlude. On tracks like Waiting Room, Alquilbencil show that they are also capable of playing what could be considered as pretty straight forward music, especially when compared to the other tracks on this intriguing album. Waiting Room is played out in a neo-progressive style with Oriol Jimenez abandoning his saxophone to contribute vocals. Fertil Crescent has a late-Floydian approach with a lengthy instrumental acting as an introduction to the sparse yet effective vocals.

Apart from the great music, the fact that this album was recorded live makes From Serengethi To Taklamakan an impressive album as this Spanish band have managed to bring together a world of influences and managed to present some new and very fresh. These last few years one has witnessed the emergence of various bands such as Afro-Celt Sound System and Paranoise, that have managed to infuse a degree of traditional into their rock approach, albeit to various degrees of prominence. Alquilbencil with their uncharacteristic blend of progressive rock could very well fall into this category and one would do well to give this band a chance. They deserve it Nigel Camilleri