Ojos de Brujo Barí 2xLP Flamenco Fusion Hip Hop Marina AbadBrandNew Sealed Rare

$

150

Ojos de Brujo Barí 2xLP Flamenco Fusion Hip Hop Marina Abad Brand New Sealed Very Rare on Vinyl
Just an Incredible recording the Fusion of many Modern & Latin styles with Flamenco ..... Incredible 
 Blame our postmodern fascination with sampling, or the hubris of generations who have grown up more familiar with copies than with the originals, but at this point we've pretty near wrung all meaning out of the word fusion. And when it comes to describing the kinds of exciting developments in world music exemplified by nuevo flamenco artists Ojos de Brujo, perhaps a new metaphor is necessary. Something more organic, even geological. Yes, that's it: When listening to Barí, the Barcelona-based group's second release, the image that fits is not that of hip-hop, funk, rap, or rumba newly melded with traditional flamenco music, but of rock layers that an ancient and moving river lays bare. The oldest strata date for the migration from India of the Roma people, called Gypsies in Spain, mixed with North African Moors. Layered upon their oral culture, their folk songs and sinuous dancing, a bluesy lament about the hard life of the fulag mengu -- the Arabic phrase for "fugitive peasant" and likely origin of the word "flamenco" -- after Ferdinand and Isabela made Christianity the law of the land. Next, the rural accents of those who hid in the southern hills of Andalusia, and the Afro-Caribbean rhythms learned by those who fled to the colonies. Some of these rhythms were carried back to Ojos de Brujo vocalist Marina Abad and drummer Xavi Turull by Cuban musicians they've played with along the way, while others already existed in the elemental flamenco grooves, the rumbas and tanguillos and bulerías, laid down by guitarist Ramon Giménez. On top is a contemporary urban landscape of stray bullets and bill collectors, precisely rendered by Abad's socially conscious staccato rapping. If all of this seems like a bit of a stretch, note the traditional handclapping that punctuates the opening guitar riff, and its relation to the percussively rapped syllables that chatter like water over rocks at the album's close. Listen to the eroded consonants of "Naita" ("Nothing"), to the fossil of a flamenco lyric with which it begins, and how seamlessly it progresses to an outcropping of hip-hop near its finale. Consider that the classic songs of Gypsy legend el Camarón set to rumba and offered as consolation to modern-day fulag mengu as "Ventilaor Rumba 80" invites them to dance to ancient rhythms. Or that today's dangerous streets can necessitate the ancient Moorish melodies and sorrowful mode of "Tiempo de Soleá," while an email from a fetchingly green-eyed boy inspires the invention of the funk-fueled "Bulería del Ay!" You just can't pull the elements or eras apart. All of this is music is firmly grounded in flamenco, with fusion occurring not just at a superficial level, but deep below its surface, as its oldest and most enduring process. Listeners who are as interested in where flamenco has been as they are in where it is going will love exploring the sonorous depths of Ojos de Brujo's Barí.

Ojos de Brujo was a nine-piece band from Barcelona who described their style as "jipjop flamenkillo" (hip hop with a little flamenco). The band sold over 100,000 copies of their self-produced Barí album and received several awards, among these the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for Europe in 2004, having also been nominated in 2003.

Their success is also notable for being achieved without the aid of label backing. They set up their own label, La Fábrica de Colores, to get complete artistic freedom for Barí, away from the pressure they perceived from their record company Edel Records for their debut, Vengue.

Flamenco is clearly central to their sound; Ramón Giménez observed "the magic lies in the flamenco... that is the heartbeat of Ojos de Brujo's songs." However, they are definitely not pure flamenco. Xavi Turull said: "...we aren't trying to do flamenco. What we are doing is using the richness of flamenco and the richness of other music to build up something different. Maybe sometimes I would say that flamenco is the strongest ingredient, but we aren't trying to do flamenco."Upon the release of their first album, Vengue (1999), the flamenco fusion group did receive a lot of skepticism and criticism from the flamenco purists. Many of them refused to acknowledge that the music was true flamenco and that it strayed from its foundation, style and structure. However, according to the group, their music reflects the past of flamenco and its multicultural roots. The gypsies themselves are diverse and multicultural, a people from the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Iberia. Ojos de Brujo takes this same theme and blends flamenco music with the diverse musical genres of today like hip hop and pop to modernize flamenco. For example Flamenco is combined in their music with other influences including Afro-Cuban, the rap and scratching/turntablismof Hip Hop, and Indian music. The music of Ojos de Brujo uses the drama of flamenco, but carries it along on a steady rhythmic foundation, making the group's music a closer relative to rumba catalana. Usually the focus of Ojos' songs are the vocals by Marina "La Canillas" Abad, which move smoothly from gritty flamenco wail to authoritative rapping. The blend of music opens up their audience base and provides more opportunity to keep creating new types of sounds.