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Written in fRoots issue 285, 2007


BERROGÜETTO
10.0
Berroguetto Música BM/001 (2006)

Berrogüetto has become a flagship band in Galician roots music. Not only is it the base of some of the scene’s leading musicians, but it has forged a distinctive musical evolution from Galicia’s rich traditional music that substantially moves it away from the Irish-Scottish approaches that were so taken to heart by many bands in the early stages of the post-Franco Galician revival.
      None of the numbers on their fourth album in ten years (hence the title) are ‘trad arr’; all are originals written, in styles that sometimes sound traditional but freely and smoothly depart from those sort of structures, variously by five of the band’s seven members. Of the eleven tracks five are songs, a welcome greater proportion than on earlier album; the instrumental skills of the band are very high, and the tunes varied in form and texture, but the songs do make clear landmarks, and Guadi Galego is a fine singer. Four of them she co-wrote with guitarist Guillermo Fernández, the fifth is by bouzouki, mandolin and harp player Quico Comesaña. They approach something potentially quite pop in form, but without compromise in their intelligent and ingenious arrangements.
      Quim Farinha’s violin and Santiago Cribeiro’s accordion are strong features, while one of the most characteristic sounds of Galician traditional music, the Galician bagpipe, doesn’t appear assert until half way through the album, played by Galego and Anxo Pintos; the latter also contributes hurdy-gurdy, sax, flutes, duduk, subtle keyboards and violin. There’s full drum-kit when needed, in the hands of Isaac Palacín, but it’s far from omnipresent, and his range of percussion is apposite and well integrated. The instrumentals are always about melody, full of twists and turns, ingeniously arranged but so elegant and mature that they don’t shout their cleverness, with pace as and when but never rabble-rousing see-how-fast-we-can-play.
      Distributed by Boa, www.boa.es


© 2007 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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