RX clerk Ryan Harper‘s Staff Pick of the Week is the new album 11:11 from Mexican guitar gods Rodrigo y Gabriela. Here’s Ryan’s review:
With 11:11, Spanish guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela return to their roots: the desperate, blistering, full-speed shredding of classic metal. Yes, that’s right: metal. R y G got their start in a Mexican thrash band and, here, it certainly shows. The fact that the pair’s guitars are no longer plugged in only adds to the album’s impressiveness.
The expansive, passionate sounds R y G are able to pull from such a seemingly limited palette (a couple of acoustic guitars and invariably light percussion work) can be likened to nothing less than the staggeringly effective chiaroscuro of a Rembrandt. This is not to say that the album is in any way homogeneous or monotonous: R y G bring their distinctive flavor and energy to Santana, Hendrix, Pantera and everything between.
For all of the album’s impressive lightning-fast flamenco licks, maybe its most perfect moment is its most understated: the album closer and title track is a quiet, haunting, soaring Pink Floyd tribute accompanied (echoed, really) by the gentle lilt of a piano.
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