"Hey Negrita are a band for those that have lived a bit or certainly intend to." That was how I wrapped up last years review of the album You Can Kick by the UK band whose list of influences on their MySpace page is inspiration in itself.
Spurred on by their acoustic performances for the BBC, including one for the legendary 'Whispering' Bob Harris on Radio 2, the band set in motion a chain of events that has now led to their latest album, Burn The Whole Place Down.
Let them pick up the story, “The idea was to cut as many tracks as we could in five hours without any overdubs or edits. So we put down our electric guitars, turned off the amps and stripped down the drums.”
“We just sat in a circle and put some microphones up. We didn’t even bother with headphones. We wanted to capture the raw energy of one of our live performances whilst preserving the intimacy of how we sound when we are jamming."
This raw live energy has seen them support such diverse acts as The Beach Boys and London’s excellent Alabama 3, taking in Glastonbury along the way. Mojo described one of their gigs last year in Austin as “a joyful sour-mash sodden affair.”
With Burn The Whole Place Down, their fourth album, they achieve their aims many times over. The albums stripped down raw intimacy makes for a powerful atmosphere. You are pitched into the middle of that circle feeling every mood shifting lyric, every heart rending note, and every emotion drenched line.
Achieving the aim of recording its twelve tracks in just five hours the album creates a swampy, heady mix of guitar pickin’, whisky drinking, harp playing, foot stomping, and intimate country blues.
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