El Guincho
Alegranza
(Young Turks)
It’s always heartening to know artists like El Guincho are out there, experimenting and working their magic alone. Eventually they’ll be discovered and dragged out of the lab, into the world. And they will be ready to be heard. Pablo Díaz-Reixa came to public awareness through the blogosphere. While there’s plenty that the indie kids profess to love and then leave just as quickly, El Guincho stands on his own. Youthful, cheer-inducing vocals are backed by imaginative play with contrasting rhythm, production effect and pitch and influences from West and South African sounds, to Brazil’s samba and Tropicalia and calypso of the Caribbean.
—Sean Flinn
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2008.