Area 52
- Rodrigo y Gabriela
- Band Name: Rodrigo y Gabriela
- Record Label: ATO
- Release Date: Jan 24, 2012
- Critic Score
- Most active
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Jan 23, 201280This album expands the very definition of musical collaboration.
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Jan 26, 201260Their sense of adventure seemingly knows no bounds, yet when, after six leisurely minutes of jazz-rock noodling, 11.11 suddenly segues into a passage of Cuban folk singing backed by a lone drummer, the strong whiff of pretension might hang rather too heavy in the air for some tastes.
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Feb 2, 201272It's an enjoyable album, and the playing is astoundingly good.
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Jan 23, 201260With clean production and virtuoisitic precision, imagine a Latin, metal, jazz inspired mellow mele, on acoustic instruments.
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Jan 25, 201270As an Afro-Cuban record, it's solid.
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Jan 20, 201260This album will infuriate many but bewitch some.
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Jan 20, 201283Call it Buena Vista Shredding Club. [27 Jan 2012, p.71]
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Jan 31, 201260They're still best when the basic Paco Pena influences surface. [Feb 2012, p.94]
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Jan 30, 201250The often overly-enthusiastic arrangements threaten to smother the qualities that made Rodrigo y Gabriela special in the first place with the quiet brutality of their guitar playing often lost in the extended jam-band style... structures.
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Jan 25, 201276The charm of the band's guitar work sometimes gets lost in the middle of C.U.B.A.'s added instrumentation.
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Feb 7, 201270Here they are in sonic competition with a dense mix of world-class musicians, making the overall result great, but washing out the instrumental singularity that they are known for.
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Feb 22, 201280Groundbreaking and mind-boggling. [Mar 2012, p.111]
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Jan 24, 201250It's a nice project that might have been put to better use as a one night only concert, because it's certainly not the crucial next step in the continued evolution of this otherwise fascinating duo.
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Feb 10, 201260Mis-steps like the sticky Santana-worship on 'Hanuman' are far less palatable, but when the combinations match up, it proves exactly how impressive this band have become.
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Jan 20, 201280A classy, varied and upbeat set.
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Jan 23, 201280A seething, soundtracky, high-gloss, high-energy orchestral Latin "fusion", full of licks and stabs and twiddly bits.
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Jan 23, 201260It's a qualified success.
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Feb 10, 201280Area 52 is hands down the duo's most grandiose, outlandish opus yet.
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Jan 20, 201260There's a punch that saves them [from] drifting into coffee-table politesse. [Feb 2011, p.98]