Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Review: hidden gem or gold dust, whichever is better

I was in Sevilla for the flamenco festival 2008 and desperate to soak up any flamenco, wandered into the flamenco specialist shop. He was playing this for some local aficionados. I had no idea what they were saying but I knew straight away that I loved it. It's raw, simple and dramatic. It's really well recorded, and I'm not sure all flamenco is. The opening bulerias is blow your bollocks off. If your not English, that just means it's very good indeed.
It's mainly singer plus guitar, with some percussion, lots of palmas but some other stuff too. My understanding is that it's not an act as such, rather it's a collective, so there's all sorts of singers and presumably players. For what it's worth, I listen to it more than any other flamenco.
Then the strangest thing happened: I went to Jerez for a long week-end not so long ago, ate, drink and staggered around trying to find some flamenco. Found a pena and saw a short but pretty good show. In front of an audience of about 7. Got home and realised it was the dudes from this CD. There's not famous, they didn't seem very flash, they play to rooms of about 7 but by jingo they're good.Nueva Frontera Del Cante De Jerez 2008

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