Pablo Días-Reixa is the mastermind behind El Guincho's Afro-Caribbean sampled beats and minimalistic glory. (Wow! What a GREAT last name to hyphenate, even when spelled wrong. Mine is spelled Díaz)
They employed minimalism in the purest sense of the word, using 2-3 note motives to build songs in layers with samples, guitar, bass, and vocals before changing to new motives. Having enjoyed quite a few minimalist groups and albums, the real delight here was the danceability—something that many minimalist groups do not accomplish. And just a word, if you've heard The XX called minimalist, that's not quite the word for The XX. XX music is sparse but very melodic and the melodic gestures are longer than these 2-3 note motives.
Pablo Días-Reixa said, “It's a dance party. You can stand if you want to, but it's OK to dance.” After that little word of encouragement, the beat drove everyone to dance. Even photographers just couldn't resist any longer and asked non-dancing friends to hold their cameras so they could join in.
The only thing that marred the set was a technical problem with some snapping and popping which sounded much like the popping of a record. They decided to muscle on after a short break. While they spoke English to the crowd, the crowd made it very clear that many spoke Spanish and behaved like a Spanish crowd. One yelled, “Rock en Español!” Others called the same in agreement.
And the crowd deeply loved El Guincho. Despite the set starting late and being held over, the crowd riotously chanted, “Otra! Otra! Otra!” forcing the band to come out for one more song. And after that one, they chanted for more.
Predictably vinyl and CDs flew from the merch table to the hands of mono-lingual and bi-lingual people who appreciated great, danceable music. One guy wanted to know, “How do you say record in Spanish?” “Un disco,” I answered. “Isn't that where you dance?,” he asked. “No, that's el discoteque.”
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Click on the Culture Collide Festival tag to see all of the acts that were covered.
Comments
Pablo does spell his last name with a 'z'. Pablo Díaz-Reixa.
T'was a great show. The new album is incredible.
He does? I saw it spelled with an s. I like him better already. LOL!!
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