Get ready to rumba

Sixteen years after the Gypsy Kings became stars of the world music genre, their 21st-century counterparts may finally be walking among us. For two years now, an eight-strong Spanish combo called Ojos de Brujo (Sorcerer's Eyes) has been wowing European audiences at events such as Womad, and also at Womex - a trade fair where world music entrepreneurs meet to sell acts to each other and, with a bit of luck, to Radio 3.

Like the Kings, Ojos de Brujo's most distinctive musical device is the rapid guitar strum and handclap of rumba, the festive style par excellence of gypsy music. Ojos, as befits the prevailing mode, splice other elements into the montage - passages of jip-jopeo (rapping), turntablism (both real and mimicked) a touch of Cuban son, a soupçon of dub reggae, another of ragga, and scraps of traditional flamenco bulerias. Their instrumentation includes key elements of 1980s "new flamenco" - Jaco Pastorius-style bass guitar, as standardised by the star Catalan bassist Carles Benavent - and cajones (crate-drums) as introduced from Cuba via Brazil by the star new flamenco percussionist, Rubem Dantas.

As for Ojos' presentation, think fast and loose. Battered jeans and T-shirts for the men, flounced nylon skirts, leather waistcoats, nose-rings, tattoos and trainers for the girls.

Lack of gypsy members and training in jip-jopeo are not the only points which distinguish Ojos from the Gypsy Kings. While the Kings were an extended family living in Arles in France, the members of Ojos hail from Catalonia, Seville, Cordoba, even Cuba and are based in Barcelona.

But the Catalan capital looms large in both groups' stories and for much the same reasons. The kaleidoscopic life of Barcelona's port has long fostered meetings of the kind that created gypsy rumba in the 1950s. It was in the areas off the Ramblas or up in Gracia that crews from Cuban, Mexican and Argentine freighters met local gypsies, and son and salsa from the Americas melded with flamenco guitar and handclaps into rumba Catalana.

Today, the Barcelona scene is more vibrant than ever. For some years, the Barrio Gotico beside the Ramblas and the recesses of the great Plaza Catalunya have resounded with the djembè drums and guitars of Barcelona's street musicians. The Plaza George Orwell has been re-baptised locally Trippie Town. From this motley milieu, two permanent bands have emerged into the lead. The first is Dusminguet, from the nearby town of La Garriga.

The second is Ojos de Brujo, whose early patchiness is now being replaced with polish. Although Spain has thrown up much greater stars in past decades, it is Ojos whom the international audience seems to have warmed to, because of their dynamism, colour and funky street image. Ironically, the Barcelona authorities have lately clamped down on street musicians, fitting security cameras with poetic suitability in Plaza Orwell, and harassing buskers by the Metro. This policy has been contested by Ojos de Brujo, who started out busking. With Ojos now nominated for two Radio 3 World Music Awards, the Generalitat de Catalunya had better watch out for a wave of new protests.

'Bari' is out now on K Industria; Ojos de Brujo play the Union Chapel, Islington, London N1 ((020 8340 9651) on Sunday