Cruzando El Rio

EDITORIAL REVIEWS The three restless alchemists who form the crative core of Radio Tarifa - Fain from Castile, Benjamin from Granada, and Vincent from France - continue to reinvent the sounds of the Iberian Mediterranean on the band's third album. Built from a base of percussion, strings, winds, and vocals, is spiked with electric guitar, krumhorn (Renaissance oboe), Arabic darbuka (an earthenware drum), argul (Egyptian double-clarinet), bagpipes, and assorted other instrumental antiquities and exotica - plus a female guest vocalist. Together, these earthy, traditional ingredients are transformed by a modern sensibility into a lively cross-cultural melange. .COM On their previous releases, Rumba Argelina and Temporal, Radio Tarifa explored the network of musical connections between North Africa and Spain. With this release, they burrow ever deeper into the music, tracing not only the roots of flamenco--check out the foot percussion on "Patas Negras" to hear the Moorish antecedents of a very Spanish sound--but going back as far as the Renaissance with "Si J'ai Perdu Mon Ami," with its rich oboe sound. There's even "Gujo Bushi," a Japanese tune that they make fit into the overall idea. The biggest musical change is the use of electric guitar, which can seem jarring at first. But this is robust music that's lived for centuries on both sides of the Mediterranean, and it can adapt to all manner of ideas--something Radio Tarifa have in abundance with their imaginative arrangements and strong sense of melody. Where the hypnotic senses of Moroccan trance music meet the passion of flamenco, bridging space and time, that's where you'll find Radio Tarifa. --Chris Nickson

Cruzando El Rio (CD Slipcase)