Fausto Taranto - La Reina de las Fatigas

Title: La Reina de las Fatigas ["The Queen of Fatigue"].
Artist: Fausto Taranto.
Year: 2020.
Place: Granada (Andalusia, Spain).
Genre(s): Flamenco/Andalusian Metal.
Label: Rock Estatal Records.

Today, I bring another project that changed my life and views.

Fausto Taranto are a band from the region of Andalusia (Spain). It is a band of experienced artists making the ultimate mix: Flamenco and Metal.

Fausto Taranto. A name that joins two unrelated terms together: Fausto, the Spanish form for "Faust", and "Taranto", a palo flamenco (Flamenco is usually divided into styles that have their own roots, influences, ways and rules, known as palos or cantes), that was born in the Andalusian province of Almería.

So, just in case you don't know, Flamenco is a kind of "modern genre" (although it is some centuries old, or even more, some experts say) that collects many music traditions from Andalusia, being Andalusia a cultural and historical region in Southern Spain, taking its name from the Muslim denomination of the Iberian Peninsula, "Al-Andalus". This genre collects influences from native Andalusians, the Romani community, the Moors, Sephardic Jews and Black Africans, as well as other later influences.

Fausto Taranto isn't the first band to blend Metal and Flamenco. Not at all. But in my opinion, they have got the most balanced blend: Alternative Metal, sung with quejíos flamencos ("Flamenco moans"), exploring the rhythms, tempos and metrics of palos flamencos and, of course, with lyrics that are just pure modern Andalusian poetry sung in Andalusian dialectal voice. It's just amazing how unique, and yet how Andalusian (or Flamenco) they can get to sound within Metal. Using as logo a traditional Andalusian peineta (an ornamental comb) turned into a skull, they bring us the best Flamenco Metal ever.

And in this year, they bring us this "La Reina de las Fatigas", their third album. An album where they explore even more the different branches of Flamenco, without compromising their Metal soul. An album to make you feel emotional ups and downs, while savouring that Southern flavour of Flamenco. A masterpiece that shows their evolution as musicians and as a band, despite the changes in their line-up. A much more mature blend showing how much they've learned in their main two influences.

This album is kind of ecclectic, since it has songs with strong beats; ballad-like, slow songs and also interludes where Flamenco is the main protagonist. The fastest and hardest songs remind a bit of the formula they followed in their first album, "El Círculo Primitivo" ('The Primitive Circle'). As the other albums, it's entirely sung in Andalusian Spanish, using pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions unique to different areas of Andalusia, especially, their home city and province, Granada.

The album comes in a very well-designed digipack. With drawings unique to this album, by Javier Sutil, and a coolest imagery that breeds from Andalusian imagery and culture, they give us a booklet with all lyrics, while associating one drawing to each particular song and their meaning. The artwork in "La Reina de las Fatigas" is complex, meaningful and really cool to watch, and it's even more delightful than ever, with its own inner mythology.

In summary, this is an amazing album that deserves more than one listening, that old and new fans will enjoy and that will provide you with an unique listening experience because of its unique blending of a Metal base with strong Flamenco and Andalusian influences. If you were, like me, one of those who used to look for strange "Folk Metal" bands outside of the usual Northern European traditions (Celtic and Viking Metal), and enjoyed bands such as Melechesh, Nile, Orphaned Land, Magane, Rudra, Kawir, Ex Deo and others, you should check this record out. Maybe the lyrics aren't about epic historic battles and mythology, as those others, but the sound is definitely of an unique flavour and tradition.

And once said this, I would like to address the album song by song, since like Flamenco, each song has its own soul, and deserves some words.

1 - La Criba ["The Picking"]

This is the opening song. A song that is medium-paced, and has different passages. But none is especially fast or slow.

The verses are tranquil, with some atmospheric company. The vocal lines go in an Andalusian traditional rhythm of chanting and the Flamenco guitar sometimes is heard here and there. This is just the calm before the storm. When the chorus breaks in, all electric instruments come into play, with a main riff that sounds a bit Arabic, even. Ihmaele de la Torre's singing voice goes to a higher pitch during the chorus, adding up emotion.

The lyrics seem to be about not following the flock, not obeying, no matter how hard, lonely or hurtful it is sometimes. To be faithful to oneself.

- "I scratch myself and there are marks on my skin. They are memories of yesterday that won't stop bleeding, that won't stop hurting just by remembering, and forced to silence".

2- La Presa ["The Prey"]

The second song is faster, and straight to your throat with the instruments and the words. Alternative Metal, where only in the vocal lines you can taste some Andalusian leaning. The drums beat you with its beat repeatedly, marking the faster rhythm.

It has a simple structure (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-instrumental bridge-chorus). The entire song is intended to be aggressive, and intense.

Lyrically, it seems to be some kind of payback to adults (or maybe teachers) that were abusive when he was a child.

- "The things of old age: the hunter today, is the prey. Your head is on my wall like a trophy in the museum of bad losing, let's see when you confess, because I see too much stupidity in the roots and in the bark".
- "Another tale without an end, another joke behind my back: a rose in a rose bush, not on your hair nor on your skirt".

3 - Rumores y Juramentos ["Rumours and Oaths"]

This was the second single and music video for the album, and the last released so far. It's a song with a constant beat, and kind of catchy. The beat is inspired in some palo flamenco, although I don't know which, since I'm no musician (yet).

In the bridge before the end, there's even a classical Flamenco chanting (lelelele) with traditional Flamenco hand claps.

The lyrics, clearly against nosy people who spread false rumours.

- "Let the rumours be heard, the gossip around the corners, let the "sniffers" go out, let them out to seek my ruin".

4 - Alboroto ["Rampage"]

This song sounds mainly like an Alternative Metal song, save for Ihmaele's quejíos. It's Metal, the riffs are constant and strong, and the two main segments alternate until the end. It's a quite catchy, easy-to-follow type of song.

- "Our faces bother us already. Our bodies bother us already. And now our monsters do appear, the ones that come out from our insides".
- "Now that all friction is fire that doesn't warm you up, but it burns you".

5 - La Ratonera ["The Mousetrap"]

Another slow one, with a string leading and slow drums. The ambience is nostalgic and sad, accompanied by some keys. In the chorus, the electric instruments break into scene and make it a bit more aggressive and dramatic, but it's still slow in its beat, just more heartfelt.

The words, I would say is a complaint against today's music industry, which sells music that lacks soul just to have gains, but forget about true artists.

- "No matter how much they close their doors at our faces, and open our scars and add salt to them".

6 - Granaína ["Granadian"]

This one is an interlude. A granaína is a palo, and its name, expressed in Andalusian dialect (in regular Spanish it would go as Granadina), it means "from Granada", just the city and province Fausto Taranto are from. This song lacks vocals and it's played only with toque (guitar playing). The song is slow and sad, evoking some melancholy.

7 - Abanicos y Soplaores ["Fans and Blowers"]

I must say the translation to this title is tricky. When one says soplaor, it can mean a person who works in blowing glass, but also another type of fan, similar to the Japanese ones, that are also very typical in Andalusia, both of them.

This was the first single and music video. This song is also slow-paced, but it has so much drama and strength in it. The Flamenco guitar has a strong presence and Ihmaele's voice is the most broken here. The song is just delightful tragedy and heartbreak. And by the end, it takes some speed and even more strength to close the song at its peak.

Lyrically, not really sure, but seems a heartbreaking rant to a girl who hurt the character.

- "My own life I'd take, just to make you blush; the queen of fatigue, the princess of pains: let's see whom you beg for tissues when they all cry for you".
- "I can see in your empty soul less life than inside a coffin".
- "And so I saw myself like an animal that was tied as a puppy and now he breaks the muzzle, and now let's see what they say about you, about me, about our darkness".

8 - Bocabajo ["Upside Down"]

This song has two very approaches that are pretty different. The verse is medium-paced, atmospheric, building up dramatic ambience until the chorus starts. There is a surgically precise Flamenco guitar making its presence here and there, and a keyboard creating atmosphere, as always. On the other hand, the chorus is strong, straight to your face, aggressive, expressing rejection and desperation, with hard riffs. Also, some parts, especially the bridge, has a Flamenco feeling to it in the rhythm.

In the end, the electric guitar, bass and drums go crazy and burst in aggressive riffs and beats, although the vocals still follow an Andalusian-sounding pattern, but it precipitates the cascade of emotions just in time to close the song.

The poetry here is a strong rejection to a past lover and their memories, or so it seems (if you haven't noticed, flamenco poetry is tricky and not always what it seems).

- "May I don't wanna come closer to even smell you, and may I reject your bread croutons".
- "May I don't wannna find myself upside down, that my madness hung from a cord".
- "Your kisses, they brought me bad luck, they left us a sad ending. They took from us more than Death herself...".
- "The clock and silence got lost. It broke right in half. The fire faded away, and also our memory, and I wish it won't burn ever again".

9 - En las Esquelas ["In the Obituaries"]

Another song that starts slow, with the Flamenco guitar playing its painful strings. Although one can hear the Metal instruments here, all of them follow acoustically the Flamenco guitar playing a palo flamenco. And as I said, I can't recognize them by hearing alone, but it's one of the slow and sad ones.

When the chorus starts, the guitar riffs slash the atmosphere in the same tempo, and express profound grief. Ihmaele's voice in this song is key to express the emotion of the song, going up and down in its Flamenco singing to drive us through the song.

- "Let it appear in the obituaries, if I don't see you prettier than the Torre la Vela".

*1 Torre (de) la Vela refers to the Watch Tower in the Alhambra, Granada's most known monument.

10 - De la Nada ["Out of Nowhere"]

This song starts fast and straight to your face. The drums hits firmly and with the same beat until the first vocal line starts. The bass follows the drums and electric guitar as fast as them. When the chorus starts, the beat slows down, to show more darkness, but it goes back to hitting you hard soon after.

- "The cold arrives out of nowhere, even though Winter ended. And the seconds stop, and they seem eternal to you".

11 - Taranta

A Taranta is a palo flamenco in the same group as Taranto. This one, which is another interlude without vocals, is skillfully played by Lolo de la Encarna on his Flamenco guitar, and it's not only like sad. It has a dense darkness in its strings. It feels almost funereal from the start. I have no clue about Flamenco guitar or the complexity of the palos, but I've listened enough Flamenco to have the strong opinion that this is one of my favourite Tarantas from all the ones I've heard.

12 - Cantes Populares ["Popular Songs"]

In this outro, one can hear, first, one of the cymbals in the drums being hit in constant times, reminding of a church bell. A male cantaor (it doesn't sound like Ihmaele de la Torre, but I might well be wrong) with high pitch voice starts singing a song by Tomás Pavón (older brother to Pastora Pavón, known as La Niña de los Peines -"The Girl of the Combs"-, one of modern Flamenco's oldest and most important voices). The electric guitar and I think the bass, break in, just few seconds after the Flamenco guitar comes in, and they all follow the singing. One drum is hit repeatedly right after. The song express, vocally, raw sadness and desperation in strong, heartfelt moans.

The perfect closure for an album with so much Flamenco feeling. Using Metal instruments, yet traditional.

Conclusion:

This album is massive, and it requires skillful artists to compose something like this. "La Reina de las Fatigas" might be the most Metal, yet most Flamenco album that Fausto Taranto has created to this day. The musicianship, and the perfect blend of these two insane genres, one so recent and one so old, bring us an amazing listening experience, filled with originality and tradition, flavoured Andalusian and Southern Spanish and making us feel frenetically and deeply.

As somebody who grew up listening to Flamenco, this kind of tributes, that make me feel as much as the original, but entwined with one of my other favourite genres (Metal), they just make me happy. Fausto Taranto is an incredibly talented band, with huge knowledge about both, Metal and Flamenco, and they deserve so much more attention than they are receiving now, so I hope this article helps a little, especially for the international public, to bring attention around them, because honestly, this is one of the most original masterpieces you can find in 2020, and probably ever.

The best: The musicianship is insane. The blend of Flamenco and Metal is each album more perfect than it already was. The sound is pretty unique. It can make metalheads interested in the ancient art of Flamenco, and flamencos interested in the rawness and intensity of Metal. As Folk Metal did with other cultures, this particular genre may show other people the beauty of Andalusian traditional music, through Metal. The lyrics are amazingly good, and very inspired by Andalusian traditional poetry.

The worst: I can't find a serious complaint. The only thing I might miss in a band like this, is that they use more Andalusian imagery in their lyrics. More epica and less urban poetry. Ihmaele's poetry is still impressive, I'm just a sucker for ancient themes.

10/10

María José Llergo - Sanación

Title: Sanación ["Healing"].
Artist: María José Llergo.
Year: 2020.
Place: Pozoblanco, Cordova (Andalusia, Spain).
Genre(s): Flamenco / New Flamenco / Experimental.
Label: Sony Music.

María José Llergo, born in Cordova, Romani, and Flamenca, she hits hard in the music scene with her first EP. An EP where anybody who listens carefully, can perceive that, despite having to skip comparisons with Rosalía all the time, this work is hers, and hers alone. And we're not having this debate, so let's focus on what matters: María José Llergo.

This is an album I've been waiting for all my life. One that has one and only concept: Healing. This work, produced by another Andalusian artist, Lost Twin, is 7 tracks only. And as a looking glass, they reflect the experiences and roots of the artist. An artist that is cantaora (female Flamenco singer) and composer. And Romani. Andalusian. Flamenca. And for me, a shaman. La Llergo* is a shaman, because I haven't always been an Andalusian Flamenco guy. Yes, I've always loved to hear elements of my land's music tradition mixed with my genres: Rock, Metal, Alternative Electronica. But I couldn't assimilate to classical Flamenco, until she helped me do it. Until her voice, her compositions and her poetry connected with me. They took me to those roots that a decade ago, or maybe more, got me interested in Flamenco and its origins. To listen this genre that is the product of an indigenous, Southern Mediterranean tradition (although already mixed), and interacting with the traditions brought by Romani people, Moors, Sephardic Jews and Black people. People that without them, this genre would sound totally different. A genre that in spite of being forbidden, persecuted and more, it survived, with all its memory, to our days. And even today, it keeps mutating and adapting to survive. And all those folks, they provided wisdom to the genre, wisdom that I wanna learn. Because if Flamenco is something to Andalusian people, those are 3 things: memory, wisdom... and rebellion.

So, before reviewing this album, and although I owe much to many Andalusian artists, I must say this first, since it's vital now: Thanks, María José Llergo. Whether you know it or not, you set me on the spiritual and cultural path I'm walking on right now.

Once said that, let's review the album, okay? And since the album is very Andalusian, but also punky, in its expression of pure freedom… What better way to do it than going song by song?

1 - ¿De Qué Me Sirve Llorar? ["What's Crying For?"]

This opening song has a very special intro. A recording. You can hear somebody working the field with a weeding hoe. Because María José Llergo has always said, repeatedly, that she first started singing while imitating her grandpa, that she used to make company while he was plowing the fields. In the end, the beats of the weeding hoe turn into music. The introduction follows with a recording on her and her grandpa, kind of reproducing what she defined like almost a ritual when she came back to her hometown and went to visit her grandparents, first.

When the voice recording fades, her singing voice makes an appearance. It is a solemn song, with peasant references. Like the start of the album. Like her own roots. A song with a persistent percussion (although not aggressive or violent at all), like a mantra. And María José's voice rises in all its splendour, as high as the columns she references in the lyrics.

- "While I was plowing my fields, four columns rose".
- "What's crying for, if singing I reach the heavens, which is where I wanna be?".

2 - Niña de las Dunas [Girl of the Dunes]

As second track, we've got her first single ever, "Niña de las Dunas". Almost a traditional song, just with Flamenco guitar, voice and hand claps. A tranquil yet dramatic rhythm, and lyrics that could easily touch the dark night of the soul. A song that has a cultural charge, following a guitar that although not violently played, it imbues us in a torrent of dramatic emotions.

Thank to this song, I felt in my bones I was ready to explore classic Flamenco. And that's what I'm currently doing.

And it's all thanks to this one. This isn't only a song. It's a moon tale. And like all folktales, it's here to remain and last, and be told... or sung.

- "Girl of the dunes, sleep well: you carry on your forehead a divine mark. Girl of the dunes, fear you not: I'll be with you in your dark flight".

- "The moon turned into a knife and stabbed her on the chest, staining in blood-red her cotton dress. She (Moon) took her for herself, she made her a companion, some people call her Venus thinking that she's a star".

3 - Soy Como el Oro [I Am Like Gold]

A song with popular lyrics, a trilla, specifically. A working chant, interpreted by this girl from a working family. Both, she and this song, are truly like gold.

This song has a calm, atmospheric electronic base, and she sings over that, creating a relaxed yet ecstatic ambience that makes you soar, floating over golden fields of cereals.

And that's all I need to say.

- "I am like gold: the more you despise me, the more valuable I become".

4 - El Hombre de las Mil Lunas

Again, a very solemn song, very easy to listen to, mixing the acoustic sound of the guitar with some electronica, and an Arabic flavour that can make you swoon. Even the small poetry tastes like Al-Andalus here. Guitar over electronica that will please the hardest of listeners, I'm sure.

- "The man of a thousand moons has already got lost in my night. For his desire to have my body he has sold even his name".

5 - Nana del Mediterráneo [Lullaby of the Mediterranean]

This is a lullaby. And for those who don't know, yes, Flamenco, or Andalusian lullabyes, are cradle songs. But as any other Flamenco's palo, it has rules, customs, variations... And as María José herself said: "I write lullabyes to help the dead rest". And nothing says that like this lullaby, this funeral rite for all the children that have died in the Mediterranean Sea because of politics and borders.

This song always makes me cry. Each time I listen to it, I think to myself: "not this time, now I'm used to it". But her voice hits mystical vibrations. So, as soon as she hits certain notes, my tears drop from my eyes. It's a natural cause-and-effect phenomenon: like the fire that burns the skin, going breathless underwater or the rose that prickles with its thorns.

- "White foam that washes the sea, you made him a cradle of water and salt. The little stars in the sky, with nacre they comb his hair".

- "Sleep, my child, cry no more: serene waters, serene waters are rocking you now...".

6 - El Péndulo

The most experimental song in the album, wrapped in an electronic ambience. This song, like a pendulum in its pendulous motion, it joins the mystic of Andalusian songs, with much more contemporary genres in a delightful psychodelia. This song sounds as modern and yet so old, as the pendulum itself. And it's mystical, dark, tragic.

- "Nobody drinks from your water. Nobody knows your creed. Nobody knows where they guide, the chants that I carry inside".
- "I know that nobody knows the algebra of your hair".
- "You stare at me like the sea stares at the sky".
- "She saw how they trembled, the flowers in the graveyard. For them not to cry, the wind was caressing them".

7 - Me Miras Pero No Me Ves [You Look at Me But You Don't See Me]

My favourite song. The first one I heard from her. The one that made me say "Gothic Flamenco", although she probably disagrees. But, it is. A beautiful, Southern darkness, I mean.

This song is a collection of extremes. Past and Future. Acoustic guitar and bass. With modern electronic but claps as percussion, reminding me of anything ancient, like the old Baetica, or India.

A song about countrywomen, like her own grandma. Women who worked the fields as much as men but they couldn't sign in social security programs because they were only seen as wives to the countrymen. Invisible. "Looked at, but unseen".

A song with a bass that hits you, but accompanied by hand claps, it feels tribal, primal, ancient. A guitar sounds with surgical precision at the right moments, and a dark, soft electronic ambience also follows them, adding a modern feeling, and tragedy to the sound. The mastery this song requires, in my opinion, is the perfect end in ecstasy for this work.

- "You look at me but you don't see me".
- "If the voice of the field pulsates within time, they're burning the herbs of your memory. If the voice of the field pulsates within time, and is dying the girl that I have inside".
- "The rose with its thorns come to see me. There, in the 4 little corners, they give me death".
- "Candela, open the door, for I come to visit you... There, in the 4 little corners, (there are) 7 serpents".

CONCLUSION:

And that's it. What a trip, huh?! This was a travel in space and time. To the past and the future of Andalusia. A wonderful experiment filled with tradition. And if you allow me a reflection, there's a key word here: melisma.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as me. And if that's the case, please, show love and support to the artist. The Gods know that Andalusian artists are very underrated.

The best: All main singles are included. The union of modern music and tradition. The variety of sounds, and how unique they are. The lyrics are pure Andalusian poetry, and very García Lorca-inspired. Beyond any musical education, María José Llergo's voice is a gift.

The worst: 7 songs only. The "Nana de los Rosales" (meaning "Lullaby of the Rose Bushes") wasn't included and it was great too. It's only digital and vynil, no CD format.

10/10.

 *1 In Andalusian Spanish, it's common to include an article (male is "el" and female is "la") before an individual's name. It's a long, long custom for people you already know, although Castilan purists deem it vulgar, low-class and typical of uneducated people, only.
 

My Introduction

Hello, everybody, and welcome be!

Who am I?

My name is Manu, but I'm known as Corvus Bruxo Luggenikos in the online world. I'm 32 years old and I am from the province of Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain). I'm a Pagan polytheist, an animist, a nativist and I'm also really passionate about the things I love. I'm also a native Spaniard, still living in Southern Spain, so please, forgive me in advance for any atrocity I may commit while using English. This takes me double the effort to express the most simple things.

And this is what this blog is all about: my passions. Not about my beliefs, nor my political views. It's about my interests, my passions, my cultural background, all things entertainment I like. And of course, about sharing it all with you. About showing you stuff that you may not know yet, but like, or about sharing the things we already have in common.

Although I already have 2 YouTube channels (with basically no following, which is fine), one devoted to history, folklore, mythology, paganism and the occult, and the other, devoted to entertainment, this one particular blog will work as a support platform for the entertainment channel, since I am currently unable to film and edit as much as I'd like.

What can you expect from this?

Well, just recommendations, opinions and other similar material, about things I love (or despise). Nothing more, and nothing less.

What do I like?

My taste is quite wide, and I do not have a philosophical stance for them: I can enjoy as much what's underground and alternative, finding little, hidden jewels, as I can enjoy something mainstream and of great popularity.

I love music, spanning through more than 20 genres. I love traditional music, both, my background's traditional music (I am Andalusian, so I clearly drink much from Andalusian tradition and Flamenco, but I also have roots in Asturias, Navarre and Basque Country, France, Morocco and Sephardic Jews) as much as authentic world's music. I love fucking Metal (Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Metalcore, Nu Metal, etc.). I love Rock. I love Alternative Electronica (Industrial, EBM, Synthpop, Darkwave, etc.). And of course, I love any crossover between these genres (Folk Metal, Andalusian Rock, Flamenco Metal, Symphonic Metal, Gothic Metal, Industrial Metal, Horror Punk, etc.).

I love TV series: Horror, Superheroes, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Drama, Family, Supernatural, Action, Police Procedure, Thriller...

I like, although a bit less, movies. About the same genres, but you can also add Romantic Comedy. It's my "guilty pleasure".

And I also like literature a lil' bit. My reading taste is limited to Horror, Supernatural, Mystery and Fantasy (such as Urban Fantasy, for example), though. I also read academic and educational material, but that falls under the concept of the other blog.

How does the blog works?

It'll be easy: first I will present the material I wanna review, recommend or what have you. In case of reviewing something structured (film series, an album, or similar), then I will adress each concept (each movie, each song, etc.) separately. Then I'll close the article. Simple, isn't it?

In the case of movies, I may add links to the trailer, particular scenes I love, or maybe quote dialogues or monologues that are cool, who knows. In the case of albums, I will for sure quote my favourite lines for each song (if I have any and understand the language they sing in) and link to the music video, if the song has any.

The material that I will address here is basically what's too exhaustive or complex to address in a video, so I won't risk missing the juiciest details in a video.

And nothing else to say. I hope my weird mix of underground and mainstream makes you interested in this I express and offer, that we share interests and that we help each other find new insteresting stuff we didn't know.

Dearly,

Corvus Bruxo Luggenikos.