|
|
S.C./Flamenco-world.com, May 2010
“Que venga ella…”.
As soon as you press the play button, it’s the first thing
you hear in José
Mercé’s voice. You don’t know very well
what style he’s doing (not even he knows), but does it matter?
What you can sense right away is that you’re before one
of flamenco’s great voices… and without exaggerating,
before one of the best voices on Spain’s music scene. On
‘Ruido’ (meaning ‘Noise’) – an album
which has little of that, but rather just the opposite –
the Jerez-born cantaor seems to take a step further in performing,
in getting himself across and in music. It isn’t simple
how he sketches things out in these songs which are flamenco and
something more… universal. On the contrary, it’s a
record which, if listened to carefully, can be appreciated as
complex and with a certain search for something more. And the
star’s attitude has a lot to do with it, but also the work
side by side, once more, with Isidro Muñoz, who he happily
meets up with again after the previous album produced by Paco
Ortega. It has the Cádiz-born producer’s unmistakable
trademark, especially in what the lyrics say and in how they say
it, but also in the vocal turns and in the freshness with which
the structures of the styles are tackled and blurred. That’s
what happens in ‘Amanecer’, ‘Ruido’, ‘Contigo’
and ‘Fe’. And the curious thing is that he isn’t
heading towards other genres. What is heard can’t be called
anything else but flamenco, even without bearing in mind the “straight
out” soleá ‘Vengo de donde no estuve’,
and the more standard tangos, alegrías and bulerías.
All of it is helped by the album’s musical concept, which
is basically reduced to guitar accompaniment. Not just that of
Moraíto,
which is inevitable, but rather he opens up to other colors, the
ones contributed by two new toque talents by the names of Diego
del Morao and Dani de Morón, and more veteran Huelva-born
composer Juan Carlos Romero. Besides the guitars, electric bass,
clapping, a few percussions and a pinch of Cuban clave for the
rumba ‘Todos seremos’. The extra guests are reserved
for the version of ‘Nanas de la cebolla’ by Miguel
Hernández that the disc closes with, which he performs
relying on Serrat’s version, but together with singers Pasión
Vega and Carlos Sanlúcar. But it’s only a reference,
on the beaten path, to the poet he says he’s an admirer
of and a bonus track for an album on which it’s a matter
of giving different life to cante as well as more reasons for
Mercé to make flamenco at everyone’s reach.
|
|
|
More
information, audio, orders