Embruxo

Galician producer Baiuca (aka Alejandro Guillán) does ‘folktronics,’ blending his native traditional music with the ambient and dance electronica of recent times. Sometimes his schtick echoes artists like Enya, Morricone or Enigma, who popularised tribal and ethnic beats by employing synths to dilute their edginess and make them more Western. The pulsating beat derives more from Kraftwerk and club culture. For all that, a Galician flavour comes through powerfully and it possesses a repetitive strain that’s as trancey as anything you’ll hear from EDM. The title of the album, Baiuca’s second, alludes to ‘bewitching,’ which in Galicia has connections to women’s rights and identity.

Galician meigas (witches) are a key part of the rural and maritime landscapes and perform an ageold function comparable to that of shamans and healers. ‘Luar’, ‘Conxuro’ and ‘Meigallo’ have a shadowy quality, suggestive of a sorcerer testing her spells on a club crowd; the guest singer on these songs, Lilaina, delivers a classical Galician vocal, tortured yet steely, and full of tremulous energy. ‘Cortegada’, featuring Cristian Silva on Galician gaita, is also trancey and vital. The aim of the album is to enchant new audiences, and by doing so bring traditional music to the digital generation. It just might succeed, for this alchemical layering of cowbells, drum machine beats, ancient stories and incantations is mesmeric and infectious even for those of us who don’t speak the lingo.