Rodrigo y Garbriela
 

(Edit - I would make a spelling mistake in the sodding title of the thread! Never mind.)

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...oyGabriela.jpg

I really can't decide which part of the boards this should be in. Are Rodrigo & Gabriela folk? Flamenco? There are so many influences to be heard while listening to their music that I really couldn't say for sure.

They have been getting quite a lot of exposure over the last few years but I thought they deserved their own thread.

They are a Mexico born duo armed with acoustic guitars that show a lot of influence in acoustic classical guitar, flamenco, samba and folk rock but who's roots are firmly and surprisingly in thrash metal. They cite Metallica, Megadeth and Overkill as influences and have regularly performed covers of Metallica's 'One' and 'Orion' aswell as covers of 'Stairway to Heaven' and Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here'.

Met playing in a Mexican thrash metal band and moved to Ireland where they gigged and busked until they recorded their first album on Rubyworks where they have now pressed 4 official releases.

Quite an impressive list of achievements I would say to go from busking on the streets of Ireland to touring the world over, having an Irish #1, headlining the Jazz World stage at Glastonbury, playing Coachella, playing on "The Late, Late Show", "Letterman" and "Later with Jools Holland" among others, touring with Damien Rice and Muse among others and getting feautures on the likes of VH1, BBC and MTV in roughly 6 years.

Technically sound guitarists, strong and enjoyable original material that does not require a pre existing taste in any of the genres mentioned above so try not to be put off by any of them if they aren't your cup of tea and some very inventive covers. Their debut album is currently taking a hammering on my mp3 player.

RELEASES:
re-Foc - (2003)
Live: Manchester and Dublin - (2004)
Rodrigo y Gabriela - (2006)
Live in Japan - (2008)


DIABLO ROJO


TAMACUN


ORION

They're an amazingly talented couple of guitarists. I only have their self-titled effort, which was certainly to me one of the albums of 2006. I've gone quite a while without listening to them as I type this, but that's only as I haven't ripped them to my iTunes yet - I'd still recommend them to absolutely anyone with a passing interest in music.

They really are extremely talented. I love that video from Jools Holland's show (in the middle up there ^) as the camera work really helps to show their talent. I love their music for one simple reason and that is I can't listen to it without feeling happy.

I was completely mesmerized by their sound and watching them play...fantastic. I'll definitely be looking into them...which album would you recommend starting with?

I had the honour of witnessing them live at a festival 3 years ago. Was one of the greatest musical experiences of my life, they were just incredible. Their cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here was just magical, the crowd even sang the words for them. Best of all they came back for not one but two encores :) good times. They also played a gig in my home town about two years ago which i couldn't attend, would have been great to see them in an intimate venue.

Great review from toeandno here:
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...tml#post573797

I'd say re-Foc and then one of the live ones to form an opinion. I say that because thats what I did but the self titled is really good too.

I meant to link that in my post! Cheers.

I found it when I ran a search.

;)

https://i.imgur.com/AuxAQF7.jpg

The Jazz EP, comprised of three tracks came out in July, and it's a slight departure from what we've come to know from the greatest duo to ever pick up acoustic guitars.

Lingus, which features slides in the early part of the song that gives it a deep-fried country-blues sound feels jarring, and while this review is after the first pass on the album, I don't know if I'll ever get into it. Incorporating this sound could be interesting, but somehow they manage to make these slides overproduced and more like a pop-gimmick than a fusion between genres.

Track 2, Oblivion, which features Spanish composer Vicente Amigo is traditional RyG and if you liked their 2006 debut, this will feel like home. If anything, this track was the only one I had to go back and listen to - it was so unremarkable (relative to the rest of their catalog) that I wanted to see if I'd missed anything. This is not to say it's a bad song, but on an EP with such strong departures from style, you almost imagine they threw this is in there for their fans who don't like change.

Street Fighter Mas is the EPs final track, and easily my favorite on here. What starts as a sort of video-game soundtrack, brings in choral chanting fronted by a guitar that you'd be forgiven for thinking belonged to Carlos Santana (also because it's electric). This track walks a tightrope of being a bit too traditional on one side, and a bit too contrived on the other, but somehow the sustained notes from the acoustic guitar on the interludes between the electric choir refrains give it a sort of Suspense-film anxiety that makes the grand narrative of the movie you're investing in your head more palatable.

This track also ends with a sort of wah-pedal outro that sounds more 70's porn flick than Kirk Hammet but it's so small it doesn't alter the song to a large degree.

In the end, I'm glad they're experimenting. If Street Fighter Mas ends up being the dominant design direction, I expect great things going forward.