Ojos de Brujo – Techari
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/18/07
Nuevo Flamenco (and more) from Barcelona. Uniquely famous for combining modern Flamenco with hip hop scratching, they’ve now thrown all sorts of other musical forms into the mix – most notably East Indian vocal beats and hand drums. Track one also features Funk, track 10 has a Reggae beat, track 4 features rapping from Daara J… Much of the sound is rather relaxed and swingy, although a lot of it is pretty uptempo.
No FCCs detected – almost all in Spanish. I like 1 best, although you’ll notice that everything else gets 3 or 4 stars – it’s insanely good.
1. *****uptempo part flamenco vocals, guitar and handclaps, part scratch ‘n’ glitch, part Blaxploitation soundtrack funk. Amazing!
2. ***midtempo and relaxed, but with complex rhythms, lots of female vocals. Definitely more flamenco than other influences. Wonderful guitar.
3. ****tabla and vocal beats, then downtempo, rather atmospheric groove with lots of vocals and fretless bass. Then there’s a beat that somehow manages to be both Bhangra and Reggae. Wow!
4. ***mellow and pretty midtempo flamenco. Some stunning guitar work. Also some male dancehall vocals in English, as well as whatever language it is that Daara J rap in (one of them guests).
5. ***Starts with something metal rolling around briefly, then intense whispered vocals and midtempo flamenco. Lots of glitch.
6. ***acoustic guitar, very traditional folk sounding number. Some very traditional flamenco singing in second half.
7. ***midtempo and a bit relaxed, lovely vocal harmonies. Mostly flamenco, but witih some odd electronics.
8. ****solo vocals intro, then uptempo flamenco with vocal harmonies. Some jazzy piano.
9. ****complex hand drums and vocal beats, uptempo but sweet with moments of jazz horns
10. ****somewhat downtempo Reggae beat, very relaxed and spare instrumentation, swingy. Ends a few seconds shy.
11. ***East Indian vocal beats and tabla intro, uptempo, fat sound. Some East Indian instrumentation and jazz piano.
12. ****totally modernized flamenco, midtempo, with bits of scratching – totally unique sound.
13. ***metal hammer and acoustic guitar intro, adds layers of flamenco and scratching, rather downtempo, swingy groove.
14. ****pretty Flamenco guitar intro for over a minute, then downtempo and very slinky beat with bit of tabla, amazing combination of sounds. Alas, this is a bonus track sort of thing – song only lasts 3:50. Last 1:10 of track is East Indian vocal beat and handclaps (which is a lot of fun, actually) – in between is 4 minutes of silence.