Monday is not the best night for going wild and dancing till your legs are about to fall off, but as they say here, "sho ga nai," for that's exactly what you'll have to do on May 30, when Barcelona's Ojos de Brujo hit Shibuya's Duo Music Exchange for their first-ever Japan show.
Ojos de Brujo are one of those bands that are impossible to classify -- flamenco funk? rumba dub? -- but dead-easy to describe: in a word, irresistible. Their sound -- honed on two albums, "Vergue" and "Bari" -- is a stunning blend of the soul and rhythm of flamenco with all forms of tight, funky modern music.
Their hit "Ventilaor R-80," off last year's "Bari," is a clear guide to their sound: slamming acoustic guitar chords over the galloping percussion of flamenco -- with passionate, half-sung/half-rapped vocals on top by flamenquistaMarina Abad. Like Rachid Taha's recent cover of "Rock the Casbah," this is music that has the rawness and spirit of punk, but thrives even when transplanted into another musical idiom.