Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Area 52
- By Jon Bye -
- Feb 01, 2012
Rodrigo Y Gabriela have gained some love in the UK. Emerging as formidable players of the acoustic guitar (at least in part) through a series of interesting Metallica covers, they’ve gone on to wow with their own original material.
Yet as fame has followed so have the opportunities to bigger and bigger things not all of which necessarily work for this two piece. 'Area 52', a performance alongside a Cuban orchestra, unfortunately provides a prime example, where the band have taken some of their favourite songs and performed them with full gusto.
The problem is that the whole experience is too contrived and overblown for the pair who made their debut as rough-and-ready guitarists. It’s more Carlos Santana’s territory than their unique riffery. Yet listening to ‘Hanuman’ you’d think this was one of old Carlos’ albums, not Rodrigo Y Gabriela.
Granted there are spots where they get back to the excellent interplay and harmonised guitar parts for which they earned their fame. ‘Ixtapa’ is right on the money to this degree, but such pieces are very few and far between.
But too often the big band experience sees the talent of the album lost behind trumpets, pianos, conchs and just about any other instrument you care to name. ‘Diablo Rojo’ buries their talent, while ‘Logos’ at the other extreme is just lounge music.
And frankly, it’s also a little repetitive. By ‘Tamacun’ you feel like you’ve heard it all before and on a repeat listen you can pretty much jump indeterminately between the tracks with no real preference or sense of distinction.
A shame such a bold move hasn’t come off, Area 52 feels sadly destined to be the background music of your local Mexican restaurant. Grand projects aside, when the talent isn’t allowed to shine through the project goes by the way-side. This is what has happened here, and I hope Rodrigo Y Gabriela can recover from it.
By Jon Bye. Tweets at @jonbyehome
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