Los Niños de Los Ojos Rojos
Spain
Spain - Los Niños de Los Ojos Rojos (The Children of the Red Eyes) havereleased
a new album entitled "Hijos del Humo" ("Children of Smoke"). For this
album, Los Niños de los Ojos Rojos have surrounded themselves with the
best
talent to be found in their path. This project includes the collaboration of
talented artists and sound engineers such as Antonio Amaral, sound
technician for popular Spanish groups of such standing as the Celtas Cortos,
La Cabra Mecánica, Barricada; Jorge López Quesada, a young Extremaduran
talent in sound and musical production; Jorge Bravo, trumpet player in the
Beri Beri Big Band; Ana Jiménez, one of the best voices of Extremadura
in
folk and traditional Irish music, singer in the group ´Él 7 de Trébol´;
Eduardo Tarilonte from Caalaña Sound with harps, synthesizers and effects;
and Jesús Cifuentes, former singer with Celtas Cortos.
After more than 2 years working on the production of this album, Los Niños
de Los Ojos Rojos confirm what everybody was expecting. A completely
hand-made album, recorded far from the big-name productions and studios,
An album whose first track "Evo Banke" captivated Montxo Armendáriz
himself, to
the point that he included them as co-protagonists in his latest documentary
production Escenario Móvil. A band member comments on the album: "...13
tracks of pure ethnic, international music of our own composition. A timeless
fusion of different
genres. Our own original sound which takes in the best each style has to
offer: traditional Irish and Balkan music, rap, funk, ska, psychedelic,
flamenco, Latin rhythms... Songs in old Yugoslav, implicative lyrics which
talk about historical change, the situation of today's youth, about magic,
about free love and the tough issues and injustices of our society, the
restoration of the ´botellón´ as a sociocultural phenomenon
and symbol of
identity for young people of the 21st century as opposed to the disco
culture of deafening bars and parties."
There's an obvious parallel to Ojos de Brujo: similar instrumentation,
including a mixologist playing live. There are some trippy effects but
enough good musicianship (Mario Lopez on spanish guitar and Alberto on bass)
to impress you. On "La Charca'l tesoro" it's only a matter of time
till the
electric lead guitar stumbles into "Purple haze"! "Smo-kin
blu" starts with
poppin' Stanley Clarke bass, adds Irish jig fiddle and gratuitous flute then
drops in a ska vocal. Quite a cocktail, and you don't want to be smoking
blue or anything else if you are tryna keep up with this. Obviously they
have worked this up in concert. All of the material is polished and suggests
years of tight interplay and intuitive forays by soloists. We are even
treated to a touch of "Asturias" in the middle of "Moja mala" which
starts
out moody and ends in another ska-gypsy rave-up. They stray to the Balkans
for "Evo banke," demonstrating that all folk music is grist to
their mill.
(Though what one does with freshly ground grist I am not sure.)
Massively talented with a sense of humour, the Red-eyed Kids are musical
over-achievers. All in all it's quite exhausting, but if you are in your
20s
this is just the ticket to keep you dancing all night.
