Negu Gorriak - Ideia Zabaldu - LP

Sello: Esan Ozenki

Negu Gorriak find a reason for hope: 'Spreading the idea'. This is the title of an album that is more positive than optimistic, like Spearhead's 'Home', which leaves behind the darkness of the previous one, but without forgetting it. The last romantic revolution of the Zapatistas ('people first'), the beginning of the Irish peace process, the birth of Fermin's first child and his stays in Central America help to set the context of an album that opens its fist and shows its hand, although it doesn't extend it to just anyone. It is one thing to be positive and quite another to err on the side of naivety. A distant relative of Mano Negra's''Casa Babylon', 'Idea zabaldu' incorporates a barrage of sounds, many of them Latin, which don't always fit together smoothly because it loses precision by insisting on crossing too many styles in the same song and resorting to riffs that are often very clichéd. It also highlights Fermin's difficulty in adapting his voice to more lilting registers. A difficulty that he himself acknowledges and avoids by handing over the microphone to Sorkun (from the band Kashbad) in 'Nire baitan daude biak' and to Irantzu Silva and Javi Pez in 'Aizu' (pure De La Soul), a beautiful song to understand AIDS sufferers and fight against their marginalisation. Positive feelings of internationalist fraternity ('Salam, agur') alternate with messages of understanding and respect, denouncing sexism and child exploitation, in favour of freedom of expression and with a brave confession: 'Inside me the tyrant and the liberator are housed / The fight begins inside me / Let's free our minds'. Almost full stop. Aim for 8 and stay at 7.Gatefold - 180gr -