Benvinguts al Llarg Viatge

Catalan band Txarango have been hailed as the grupo revelación, or next big thing, in the Spanish press. Taking their name from the charango, the small South American guitar traditionally made out of an armadillo shell, the eight-man outfit got local audiences excited with just two songs – ‘Vola’ and ‘Nits amb Txarango’ – in 2011 and then went on to tour Spain to considerable acclaim. For all the strangeness of the Catalan language, there's something very familiar about Txarango. A reggae beat underpins many of the songs, which are essentially rumba catalana with some son-influenced brass and piano. A sort of circus-carnival vibe imbues the whole enterprise – the band sing a lot about being part of an ever-roving caravan. This is Manu Chao or Ojos de Brujo territory, and it is also where the briefly popular Catalan cumbia-ska band Dusminguet belonged, and their former singer Joan Garriga and his La Troba Kung-Fú are credited here along with several other main players from the Barcelona music scene. The energetic eclecticism of the enterprise remains pretty enjoyable and the politics are appealing – these Catalans declare they ‘belong not to Spain, but to the world,’ but the novelty factor is long gone. I suspect Txarango will appeal to those who weren't around first or second time round.