Rodrigo y Gabriela are a Mexican couple who landed in Ireland some years ago and wooed us with their exciting blend of metal riffs and flamenco all played on their two acoustic guitars. They manage to extract an awful lot of riveting music from just these two instruments, through the strings the bodywork and the interplay between each other.

They are perpetual sellouts in venues across Ireland and ar enow beginning to make it on the international scene.

They have recently released their second all instrumental album proper and on it they cover Led Zeppelin's Stairway to heaven. For my money, though many disagree, it is the weakest track on the album. A slow mood breaker amongst the fast paced originals on a brilliant album.

The 12" is however a different story. The singles from this album, unlike the album itself have all been released on vinyl. 7"s and for this release we also get a 12" with a different mix on either side.

Side A gives us a Mint Royale mix which is a four to the floor crowd pleaser guaranteed to have your dancefloor heaving. Its a beautiful sounding piece and is wonderful to dance to.

Side AA has the Chris Coco mix which is a trancier affair and possibly more suited to those trendy cafe bars who play a lot of Brazilian jazz and the like. Me? I'd quite happily dance to this one too.

Neither remix leaves an awful lot of the original but that should not distract from their own quality.


No matter what release of Rodrigo y Gabriela you pick up I seriously doubt you could be disappointed. But this record, just because it is a single, will probably undeservedly go unheard by many.

Its a very high quality vinyl release. Pressing is excellent and the (presumably) digital recording is also impressive.

www.rubyworks.com
www.rodgab.com