Album review: Rodrigo Y Gabriela – ’11:11′

Lightning speed finger-work from Spanish guitar spouse tag team

It’s not often you get flamenco duos in NME; let alone flamenco duos who have opened the main stage of V Festival and covered [a]Led Zeppelin[/a] and [a]Metallica[/a] on their debut album. Returning to pay tribute to more heroes on their second album (Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Paco Lucia and, uh, Dimebag Darrell are all referenced), they’ve enlisted Colin Richardson, who’s worked with Trivium and Slipknot, on mix duties. He’s buffed their nylon-stringed sound to a metallic shine, yet, aside from an ill-advised speed-metal guitar solo on ‘Atman’ and a cheesy coming-out-of-the-club-door sweep on opener ‘Hanuman’, it all works well. If you’ve ever been enticed by Spanish guitar, here’s your rock’n’roll introduction.

Tom Pinnock

Click here to get your copy of Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s ’11:11′ from the Rough Trade shop.

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