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CD Review
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Roots World, CD Review >>
Gnawledge
Granada Doaba
Gnawledge Records (www.gnawledge.com)
At first glance I thought this album had something to do with Gnawa music or culture. It doesn't have a direct connection, but it's a pretty good piece of work that shows the paths music can take. Granada Doaba is the result of the efforts of an American Fulbright scholarship recipient named Canyon Cody who recently headed for Spain to blend flamenco and hip hop. He enlisted the
help of a producer who goes by the name of Gnotes and some local players in the city of Granada, the final stronghold of Moorish culture in Spain before the reconquista began in 1492. Cody's got an apparent passion for true flamenco, and the first track, "Flamencologia," is pretty much untouched flamenco guitar. Things get considerably more contemporary after that, but fret not. The manufactured beats are better than what you usually hear on projects of this sort, and nearly every song has a handy melodic device, like the flute riding atop galloping percussion on "Calabazar de Sagua" and the elegant Arabic tones of "Qanun Al-Tarab," that keeps things from sounding cold.
Though there's not much in the way of vocals, the blend of electronic and acoustic sounds has a lyrical grace to it. The whole disc is reportedly being offered online for mixologists to sample for free, and the easygoing spirit of such a gesture permeates other aspects of the project including the unfussy but hand-crafted feel of the music and some delightful patchwork liner notes. There's a remix CD included, which I was in no hurry to listen to. The original has the stuff as far as I'm concerned, and my answer to the sampled voice on "Perro Cruzado" which asks "ain't it funky?" is an emphatic yes. - Tom Orr
You can download music from the band's blog this week:
http://gnawledge.com/blog/?page_id=45
10/25/09 >> go there
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