Ojos De Brujo, Roundhouse, London <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Howard Male
Wednesday 14 February 2007 20:00 EST
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Towards the end of Ojos de Brujo's exhilarating two-hour show, the keyboardist, speed-rapper and translator DJ Panko told the non-Spanish half of the audience that the singer Marina had said something to the effect that "Tanguillo de Maria" "is very, very happy song for you". That could have applied to virtually any of the Barcelona band's relentless set. Many of their songs are overtly political, but the vibe is always up.

Marina, with her locks bound tight in an orange head-wrap, antique clothes and scarlet feather boa, looked like the Rastafarian offspring of Frida Kahlo. She ran around the stage, singing every song with the same throaty intensity.

Her melodies have a Spanish heart of darkness, but then an Arabic twist or Indian flourish lifts them to another level. She was flanked by two flamenco guitarists, a drummer, two percussionists and a bass player, plus any number of bit players, including a male flamenco dancer. The musicians gave the impression of racing each other to the end of each song, rather than simply playing it.

The intensity was ratcheted up by back-projections: videos tailor-made for each song, rhythmically in synch, of UFOs, trippy graphics, Japanese-style anime and archive footage of wars and riots, all deftly integrated.

Even in the notoriously treacherous acoustics of the Roundhouse, they sounded great. The bass solo, by the extraordinary Javi Martin, was a note-per-nanosecond onslaught that stunned rather than offended.

The high point was "Todo Tiende" from their latest album Techari. The sound of Xavi Turell's atmospheric tabla led into this Indian-influenced tune, which has more of a swing beat than anything else they do. But then it was back to the race to the finish, which included an encore singalong of "Ventilaor R-80", their best-known song in the UK.

Much is made of the influences Ojos de Brujo throw into the pot - bhangra, hip-hop, reggae, rhumba and others - but the drive of flamenco rhythms at breakneck speed is the solid backbone. If you then throw in the grit of Seventies punk, you start to understand why they can attract a rabidly enthusiastic audience whose ages seem to range from 16 to 60.

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