Las Rubias Del Norte
(Barbes)
Ethnomusicologists beware. Las Rubias Del Norte's third and latest album wants nothing to do with purity. Its dozen Latin-flavored cuts borrow melodies from every corner of the world. The title track comes from Greek rembetika composer Manolis Hiotis. A mid-album highlight "J'Attends Un Navire", from Kurt Weil's French-language opera Maria Galante. "Seguedille" is from Bizet's Carmen. And "Mana Janab Ne Pukara Nahin" hails from mid-1950s Bollywood - about as far as you can get from traditional Latin influences.
And yet, all these tracks, as well as the more conventionally Latin ones like Venezuelan composer Simon Diaz' "El Alcaravan" and Hermanos Cantoral's "Crucifijo De Piedra", have a pronounced south-of-the-border slink and swagger to them, paced by syncopated hand drumming and scratchy back-beats, and punched through with slanting surf-1960s guitar. A There's a sizzle to these grooves, even the slowest and prettiest of them smouldering a little at the edges. And make no mistake, these are very pretty tunes, sung in light-as-air harmonies by Las Rubias' two classically trained singers, Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb. The two of them are particularly sublime in the title track, where their voices join with hardly a visible seam in darting, birdlike flights of melody. Yet that is by no means the extent of it. "J'Attends Un Navire" has a 40s movie-star glamour in its sheeny vibraphone and lush, caressing harmonies, while the lavishly instrumented "Mana Janab" (the Parker String Quartet sits in), offers an eastward-slanting view of these voices' effortless precision.
In working on this album, the band tried to imagine a world where rock ‘n roll had never happened, where the omnipresent Latin influences of the 1940s and 1950s continued to drive American pop into suave and sophisticated directions. It's an interesting world they've created, maybe not one to live in full time, but a lovely spot for a late night drink and some witty repartee.
Standout Tracks: "Ziguala", "J'Attends Un Navire" "Seguedille" JENNIFER KELLY
