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Written in fRoots issue 361, July 2013


ES REVETLERS
Va De Per Llarg
Discmedi Blau BLAU CD 603 (2013)

This is refreshing, It reminds me of the mainland Spanish village groups that Pedro Vaquero recorded around mainland Spain for his Sonifolk Cantes Del Pueblo series from the 1970s until his untimely death in 1997. In a one-man crusade he was documenting, and making available as inexpensive cassettes in the local bars and bus stations, the folk music that he could see disappearing as the car took the place of the horse or the foot for travelling to romerias, and children were indoors with the TV rather than playing around the oldsters in the street and sharing songs.
     (Incidentally, Pedro is now commemorated, and the music continues, in the Festival Pedro Vaquero in his home village of Candeleda)
     He didn’t record in Mallorca, home of this group who are, Pedro would doubtless be pleased to hear, the offspring of the previous generation’s singers, players and dancers; a good time singing, playing and dancing is always going to be a good time no matter what the technological or economic distractions.
     Raw, real, characterful female and male voices, self-accompanying on up to six insistent, rhythmically finger-strummed guitars and smaller guitarrós, a fiddle, bass drum, clapping, clip-clopping castañuelas and occasional flabiol (whistle), xeremia (bagpipe), grunting ximbomba (friction-drum), or a guest bass adding pitch to the skin-headed drum’s dry thump.
     Twenty-six tracks, most in versions of triple-time – cotas (jotas), mateixas, fandangos, boleros and more, mostly songs with some instrumentals – with a scattering of original composition showing that it’s a living tradition. Most are shorter than three minutes, and that’s all they need to implant their melodies and dancing rhythms in the brain.

www.esrevetlers.com, www.discmedi.com, UK distribution www.discovery-records.com



© 2013 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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