Stage 06, Spain

Spain is regarded as probably the most decentralized State in Europe at the present moment, with all of its different territories managing locally their Health and Education systems (just to mention some aspects of the public budget) and with some other territories (the Basque Country and Navarre) even managing their own public finances without hardly any presence of the Spanish central government in this regard or, in the case of Catalonia and the Basque Country, equipped with their own, fully operative and completely autonomous, police corps which widely replaces the State police functions in these territories. Currently Spain resides in the top 10 of best countries to live. It has transformed itself again with help of the EU, after decades of dictator Franco rule. There's much to tell about Spains very rich history i would suggest a lookin @ Wiki

In Spain several very different cultural streams came together in the first centuries of the Christian era: the Roman culture, which was dominant for several hundred years, and which brought with it the music and ideas of Ancient Greece; early Christians, who had their own version of the Roman Rite; the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that overran the Iberian peninsula in the fifth century; Jews of the diaspora; and eventually the Arabs, or the Moors as the group was sometimes known. Determining exactly which spices flavored the stew, and in what proportion, is difficult after almost two thousand years, but the result was a musical style and tradition considerably different from what developed in the rest of Europe.

For many people, Spanish music is virtually synonymous with flamenco, an Andalusian genre of music. However, regional styles of folk music abound, and these days pop, rock and hip hop are also popular, nevertheless the flamenco guitar seems never far away. Flamenco is an Andalusian traditional folk music. It consists of three forms: the song (cante), the dance (baile) and the guitar (guitarra). First reference dates back to 1774, from Cadalso's "Cartas Marruecas". Flamenco probably originated in Cádiz, Jérez de la Frontera and Triana regions.
Time now to start with the sixth leg of my euro tour, crossing the mediterranean from French Corsica my last stop , towards Spanish Ibiza.

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B-Tribe - Suave Suave * 334mb

Well B-Tribe (flamenco-dance-new age) was initially thought as an chill out Ibiza introduction to Spain, B-Tribe previously known as the Barcelona Tribe of Soulsters set the standard for world fusion, with its unique mix of Gypsy wailing, flamenco guitar, breathy female vocals, Germanic techno/house beats, and brain-cooling keyboard ambiance. Now when Wiki confirmed B -Tribe to be a spanish band i thought nothing of it , certainly when looking at the cover/info. However when researching for this post it turned out that the main man is a german living in Ibiza for 20 years, Claus Zundel, here he's accompanied by Brazilian diva Deborah Blando and Antonio Machadol (spoken/ vocals). Enigma and flamenco music, a great cover of Fleetwood Macs Albatross and what do you get ? A laidback and enjoy the sunset /rise album, with a cool drink around feeling content with the world. Moodmusic.

Alas currently the northern hemisphere has to make do with Xmas muzak and chills of the other kind, so to those enjoying summer now pick this up, northerners will have to wait 6 months to get intouch with it. Well this is a copy of the original euro-release in 1995 with a completely different cover than the subsequent US release which does have an extra track.



01. Suave Suave
02. Que Mala Vida
03. Sensual
04. Ahoy
05. Hablando
06. Interlude
07. Albatross
08. Te Siento
09. Nanita (A Spanish Lullaby)
10. Poesia (Poem By Antonio Machado)
11. Yo Quiero Todo

B-Tribe @ Amazon

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Ojos De Brujo - Bari  (flac 326mb)

Ojos de Brujo ("Wizard's eyes" in Spanish) is an eight-piece band from Barcelona, who describe their style as "hiphop flamenkillo" (hip-hop with a little flamenco) The band sold over 100,000 copies of their self-produced Barí album, and has received several awards, among these the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for Europe in 2004 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 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 don't pretend 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 don't pretend to be doing flamenco." Flamenco is combined in their music with other influences including Afro-Cuban, the rap and scratching / turntablism of hip-hop, and Indian music.



01 - Intro (0:43)
02 - Tiempo De Soleá (Soleá Time) (3:07)
03 - Ventilaor Rumba (Ventilator Rumba) (3:22)
04 - Naita (Nothing) (3:46)
05 - Quien Engaña No Gana (Cheats Will Never Win) (3:20)
06 - Zambra (Gypsy Party) (6:47)
07 - Ley De Gravidad (Law of Gravity) (3:51)
08 - Memorias Perdías (Lost Memories) (3:22)
09 - Tanguillo De María (Marijuana Tanguillo) (3:29)
10 - Bulería Del Ay! (Ay Buleria!) (3:28)
11 - Calé Barí (Barî Gypsy) (5:17)
12 - Acción Reacción Repercusión (3:24)
13 - Rememorix (8:59)

Ojos de Brujo @ Home
Ojos de Brujo @ Wiki
Ojos de Brujo @ Amazon

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Schwarz - Arty party * (flac    322mb)

After having a ibiza german pretending to be spanish we have a spanish band from Murcia confusing the public with a german name like Schwarz (=black), the first big brake they got was when they managed to sell the cover painting for some 500,000 euro (apparently ). This album has no presence outside continental europe and is as such testament to UK/US musicimperialism, im sure it would have made a splash had these guys come from New York or Manchester but Murcia ?

To the music now, is the music of Schwarz Arty'? Well, let me think. Pretentious, not really, but it ís 'arty' like Kraftwerk or Velvet Underground. Party then ? Late night ones, when the head moves but the legs folded. Confused ? Well its arty and party it starts off with an OMD/Kraftwerk with a droning organ title track It continues with songs vaguely reminiscing of Jesus and Mary Chain/Stereolab but then there's shoegazer Stooges droning aswell. Can all these two elements co-exist on a record without getting schizophrenic or, in the best case, slightly confused? Answer: yes, if life is full of contradictions, why shouldn't this record be?

Februari 2007 will see the release of "Heavengazer" on the BlueNoise label.



01 - Arty Party
02 - Hipnohimno
03 - Nouvelle Vague
04 - Beauty Must Die
05 - Specimen 3
06 - Droning Forever
07 - Raining Stars
08 - 100% Fun-Free
09 - Psychotic Hypnotic

Schwarz @ Home
Schwarz @ Myspace

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Ketama - Songhai * (flac 189mb)

A trio, featuring brothers Antonio and Juan Miguel Carmona and their cousin, Juan Carmona, Ketama is one of the leading groups of the "new flamenco" movement. Since releasing their self-titled debut album in 1985, the trio has directed the evolution of flamenco as a world-savvy music. In addition to their own albums, which fuse flamenco with salsa, Brazilian, reggae, pop, funk, jazz, and hip-hop influences, Ketama has collaborated on two albums -- Songhai 1 and 2 -- with Malian multi-instrumentalist Toumani Diabate. Describing Ketama's sound, Folk Roots wrote, "harmonies masterful....melodies exquisite....pace and timing deeply satisfying....reaching points of the brain/body most music snoozes past.

A chance meeting at a London house party led to this melodious collaboration between Mali kora virtuoso Diabate and the young, flamenco-based Spanish group Ketama. While Diabate's dazzling runs often give the impression of several instruments being played at once, Ketama is a group with the focus of a single mind. Together, their music drifts up and down the African continent, ranging from the relatively relaxed, repetitious groove-oriented music of West Africa to the occasionally blistering, speed-clapping, and Islam-tinged sound of Iberia.



01 - Jarabi
02 - Mani Mani Kuru
03 - Caramelo
04 - A Toumani
05 - Vente Pa Madrid
06 - Africa
07 - A Mi Tia Marina
08 - Ne Ne Koitaa

Ketama @ Casa
Ketama @ Wiki
Ketama @ Amazon

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* All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !


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Some of you may have read about the Velvet Undergrounds first albums pre lacque master had been sold at ebay for 155,000 dollar. Meanwhile the seller of the rare Velvet Underground record has revealed that the final bid by a person known only as mechadaddy has turned out to be fake. The seller of the unique acetate, Warren Hill, has said that the sale didn't work out as planned, he added that despite the setback he was "still interested in selling the acetate, for those interested in how it sounds there's a 320k quality download available @ Ape Shall Never Kill Ape , first link is dead, has been upped again see their comments.