Rodrigo y Gabriela - Live in Japan

Word of mouth sensations Rodrigo y Gabriela have been playing to increasingly large venues over the past few years. There’s no doubting the fretboard (or indeed any part of the guitar) mastery of their expertly performed flamenco but they’ve made their reputations with the added parlour trick of integrating classic rock riffs (Metallica, White Stripes etc) into the routine; mainstreaming it up somewhat (I mean Stairway to Heaven, FFS?) to get the average punter purring. Their studio albums have singularly failed to recreate the atmosphere of the live encounters. Rodrigo y Gabriela know this, and cleverly, they’ve packaged this album with a short DVD from the performance, to show us what it’s all about. OK, so they’ve recently introduced an effects pedal (for the Hendrix, y’see) and a new composition in the form of OK Tokyo which is no deviance from their normal. Mostly, alas, it’s material which has been available in recorded form for some time now. [Paul Mitchell]