Rodrigo & Gabriela & C.U.B.A — Area 52

Happy Rod and Gab fans! Area 52 is more of the same – despite all the Cuban music it features, recorded in Cuba and performed by a 13-piece Cuban orchestra called (wait for it) C.U.B.A. But because each new Rod and Gab disc needs a fresh mistake to make it different, this time round the duo ignore the possibilities (and culture and rhythms) of Cuba’s music and plough on with their artless arpeggios, percussive pluckery and general timewasting, occasionally allowing an ‘ambient’ soundtrack moment to waft through (perhaps brought on by their recent soundtrack work on a new Pirates of the Caribbean film), before re-discovering that tune they always play that sounds like a beach holiday advert. There are Mexican allusions and we also get Indian twangs, rock riffing, some daft Morecambe and Wise-style big band blowing and heaps of sub-classical pontificating, all given a Cuban makeover by Britain’s best Latin pianist and arranger Alex Wilson and mixed by Grammy-collector Rafa Sardina. Track four, ‘11:11, is seven-and-a-half minutes and allows plenty of space for messing just about everything up, starting with the usual R & G guitar chit-chat, climaxing with an epic sliding power-chord and then wrapping things up with a token African chant. I have no idea what the point, message or hope of this song is; and I suspect they don’t either.