Indialucia – Indialucia
Reviewed by Sadie O., 5/22/07
Indian/Andalucian mashup with multinational band. Celebrates the fact that flamenco is largely influenced by Gypsy/Roma, who originally hailed from northern India. Unsurprisingly, the musics fit together quite nicely… There ain’t crap in the liner notes or promo material, but TONS on the website (www.indialucia.com), including an erudite discussion of the history and musical theory involved.
No FCCs, I like the first track best, then probably 8-9 as one piece.
1. 5:22 ****hyper hand drums and classical Indian tabla vocalizations, then jazzy relaxed sitar and fiery flamenco guitar.
2. 4:08 *mellow acoustic guitar, sweet sitar and (unfortunately, IMO) strings. Sevillanas can be extremely relaxed, probably because Sevillians are…
3. 6:42 **low-key Indian drone and vocals, flamenco-based hand percussion. Slow and subdued/mysterious..
4. 3:26 ***short vocal intro, then all sorts of hand percussion (fairly low levels) Mouth harp? Lots of clapping… tabla vocalizations…
5. 5:16 ***pretty flamenco guitar and Indian qawwali vocals. Never heard anything like this combination before – it works amazingly.
6. 8:05 **Indian drone and sitar, percussion coming in much later. This is a raga – I can’t hear any Andalucia in it. Mind you, it’s quite a GOOD raga…
7. 6:37 ***flamenco handclaps, guitar. Sitar as well, but it’s basically flamenco. Goes through a lot of changes – interesting stuff.
8. 2:15 **resonent flamenco guitar – basically intro to next cut.
9. 5:15 ***starts with guitar flourish from last track, adds a bit of drone and tabla, then sitar. Lots of changes. I’d play 8 and 9 together – they flow from flamenco to Indian without you really knowing it.
10. 2:53 **solo male Indian vocals, very subdued at start, then quite emotional-sounding wails that cross over to Flamenco vocalizations. Very soft bells for last several seconds.