*. Radio Tarifa .*

Album: Rumba Argelina (1994)
Genre: Prog Folk (Flamenco/Spanish Folk/Arabic Folk)  /  Spain

The first time I heard of Radio Tarifa was on a boxed set of flamenco music called Duende: from Traditional Masters to Gypsy Rock. The set emphasized "new flamenco," which isn’t really flamenco at all. Quietly nestled within the flamenco-tinged pop, jazz and rumba styles that are so widely heard from Ketama and Pata Negra, was Radio Tarifa. Like an alien being disguised as a human, Radio Tarifa does not fit in with the others. While Tarifa is a town located at the southernmost point of Spain, just across the Gibraltar strait from Africa, Radio Tarifa is based in Madrid. The three core musicians, Faín Sánchez Dueñas (percussion), Benjamín Escoriza (vocals) and Vincent Molina (Arabic flutes) imagined what a radio station in Tarifa would play, and came up with a mix that includes not only flamenco cantes, but also Moorish medieval percussion, Islamic flutes, ancient Turkish folk, and contemporary Arabic Moroccan and Algerian influences. The band has expanded into eight members to encompass an enormous range of instruments with names I couldn’t begin to define (cumbus, derbuka, djembe, casbas, buzuki, afuce, tar, bansuri, ney, guimbris, crumhorn, balaphon, sanza, oud, ghatham, fidula, tares, adufe, pandero, roncon, sentir, kaval). The result is gorgeous songs with as many atmospheric moods as there are instruments. 
Review by "Fastnbulbous" (Rate Your Music).

RATING:  8 / 10

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