Album Essentials: Rodrigo y Gabriela "Rodrigo y Gabriela" (2006)
By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor
"Tamacun," the instrumental tune that kicks off the official debut from Rodrigo y Gabriela, startles as it shows off what this Mexican duo was all about. There is power in the acoustic side of music, and these two were dead set on proving that. Shards of classical, flamenco, folk, Latin and rock all come crashing together in a perfect storm you can't help but react to.
They began a musical life playing a heavier style of music in their native Mexico City before packing up and moving to Ireland. It was then that they became fixated on the idea of musical worlds colliding. As the acoustic guitar served as the driving force, their early heavy metal influences were never too far from reach, as proven later in the album by covers of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and "Orion" by Metallica.
"There was always music in my home," Gabriela recalled in a 2006 interview. "My mum was a music lover and her collection of music was fantastic. She had jazz, classical, the Beatles, Rolling Stones; to salsa (very good salsa), to Mexican boleros." This melting pot of sounds and styles hit her hard, and by age 11 Gabriela had decided she wanted to learn an instrument.
From "Diablo Rojo" and "Vikingman" through to "Satori" and "Ixtapa," the album flows like a mighty and exotic river, with each wave different from the last as it crashes. Their take on "Orion," originally from Metallica's Master of Puppets album, is a perfect fit. In fact, after it plays out, it makes more sense in the setting they create here than it did on Puppets. They truly made it their own.
Producer John Leckie added just the right amount of polish to the recordings here. His flair for beauty with such bands as XTC, Magazine, Radiohead, the Verve and many more works perfectly in this setting, creating an album that pushed beyond the NPR-type walls a lot of records like this seemed destined to stall behind. They worked out their unique direction in front of live audiences.
"We then moved to the beach and we were playing different styles of music even though we didn’t have any material to play for romantic, candlelit dinners for tourists at the beach," Gabriela recalled. "We were so desperate to work we agreed and did two sets of 45 minutes in which we played Metallica and Slayer, and people said, ‘What sort of music is that?’"
The album was released in February 2006 and, incredibly, shot to No. 1 in Ireland. It also led to a career that continues to this day, along the way scoring a couple of Grammy Awards and providing a unique and interesting soundtrack for anyone who listens.