Hey Negrita: Burn The Whole Place Down

[John (Biscuits and Gravy) Davy]

Hey Negrita: Burn The Whole Place Down http://www.myspace.com/heynegrita It's just great to find a new favourite band, there hasn't been one for a while, but this album is just great. Recorded 'as live' on acoustic instruments, 'Burn the Whole Place Down' shows all the qualities that make for a great band: great songs, great playing and a distinctive sound that is partly down to the wondrous interplay of these seven guys and partly to Felix's (he has but one name it seems) gravelly, lived-in voice. His is the voice of a man who's been through the mill and emerged the other side with his humanity intact and nothing to prove to himself or anyone else. He's not working at his performance - or at least he doesn't sound like he's working at it. He's just breathing life into his own lyrics which always have the smack of real life, real experience about them - just buffed up with a bit of poetic license.

I believe One Mississippi is the lead single off the album and this has all the qualities to be found throughout the album. In particular it has the relaxed, easy playing of an ego-free ensemble; the guitars have a rich, full sound and provide little bursts of melody. Never obvious or brash, but always satisfyingly musical in a way that means the next time you listen you'll catch another little detail to make you smile. And then there's the harmonica, and the accordion and the banjo - it's all too lovely for words. In fact, I can't believe they ever feel the need to plug in because the sound they've got here has got everything that I like in American roots/folk/country type stuff but is quite uniquely the sound of a London band; I can hear the influences and I love the fact that they have that American facility for making tunes that are singable without ever being crassly obvious but they sound like Hey Negrita, and no-one else. Can't wait to see them live.
John Davy



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