Pablo Díaz-Reixa's first full-length as El Guincho, 2007's Alegranza!, predicted the whole chill-obsessed, beach-minded trend that we've been more or less stuck with for two years running now. What made that record so fresh and engaging, though, wasn't its crystal-ball nature; it was Díaz-Reixa's disorienting, drum-heavy style and use of repetition. Sheets of pounding rhythm, joy-packed vocals making every structural shift sound like a parade turning a street corner-- El Guincho knows repetition can be bliss, but he also knows (unlike many of his followers these days) that bliss doesn't have to sound so goddamn boring.
Alegranza!'s formula seemed as if it would benefit from further refinement-- which is why it's more than a little disappointing that Pop Negro, Díaz-Reixa's follow-up, ditches said formula almost entirely. Instead of feeling warm and a little bit lived-in, the songs here sound relatively chilly and fussy. The percussive elements are more conventionally linear-- less a full-on rhythmic assault-- and the song structures are frequently disjointed and fidgety, as if he had trouble in staying in one place for very long.
This new approach ends up working a few times, most successfully on opening track and lead single "Bombay", which carries more than a little bit of a Balearic bounce in the steel drum hits that vibe under Reixa's expressive melodic phrasing. "FM Tan Sexy" embodies at least two of the words in the title (guess which ones) with a taut backbeat and sliding sighs, while "Ghetto Fácil" and "Novias" aim upward with tropical effervescence.
More often than not, though, the restlessness of Pop Negro cements its mediocrity. Too often, Reixa works himself into an enjoyable groove that is then disrupted by melodic transitions so ill-fitting they seem nearly discordant. There's some good ideas in these songs-- see: the carnival chorus of "Soca Del Eclipse", the ocarina'd fluttering of "Lycra Mistral"-- but all the clutter and overstuffed arrangements (really, every time a saxophone shows up here, it doesn't work) seem designed to ensure that those ideas only half-stick before sliding down the wall. Indeed, Pop Negro feels transitional. El Guincho has a clear abundance of talent; he simply didn't harness it this time around.
