KATEBEGIAK

Generally I find Basque folk music to be rich in textures and emotion although sometimes a little light in percussion and elaboration. That applies here as well, but in a bit too great a measure. I don’t know anything about Enbor other than this was their last album and the female singer from the debut was gone by the time this was recorded.

Beyond that this is a fairly plain album musically, with very little energy and not any particularly noteworthy musicianship either. Nothing here is actually poor, it just doesn’t go very far to draw the listener in and keep their attention either.

The first half of the CD was a side-long title track suite on the original vinyl release, although it is actually made up of several loosely joined smaller parts. The band is mostly acoustic except for some electric guitar (there’s also an acoustic guitar). Add Iñaki Urretxaga on some sort of woodwind (flute or something ethnically similar) and piano and you have most of the band’s sound. Amaia Kareaga’s vocals are competent but not exceptional, but his shortcomings are offset somewhat by decent harmonizing backing from the guitarists Joxe Portela and Iñaki Gutierrez.

After the lengthy opening the band seems to have struggled to come up with enough material to complete the album, and indeed the record is just over thirty-six minutes long so there would have easily been room for another song or two if the band had something more to add.

Of the remaining tracks “Kutsadura” is too long on vocals and too short on musical variety, while “Neska Adiskidea” features some mellow and intricate guitar fingering along with horns but little else. Neither of the other two tracks stand out either, and only the closing “Agurra II” features any measure of percussion or acoustic guitar that would hint that this is actually a Basque album (other than the vocals of course).

I actually kind of like this album the way I like to listen to some of the b-list west-coast American folk singers of the seventies once and a while. But not often, and the same goes for this record. A fair effort, but not much more than a collector piece for fans. Two stars that would be 2.5 if that were possible in the current rating system.

peace