Spain: Country Week

Ten new Spanish styles, each built from a single recording. Nylon string guitar and palmas, Eurodisco strings, synth pop melodrama, gothic arena rock, rumba grooves, and modern Madrid fusion. More Spanish styles join the pack over time.

Spain never settled on one sound. This pack moves from late sixties orchestral pop and the nylon string rumba that carried flamenco onto the radio, through seventies Eurodisco and eighties crooner ballads sung over full string sections, into synth pop with bolero bones, chorus-drenched rock from Aragon, and raw distorted rock from Extremadura. It lands in the present, where palmas, handclaps and copla phrasing sit on top of programmed low end. Ten new styles, each drawn from a single recording rather than from a whole catalog. Expect Spanish guitar, cajon, brass, choir stacks, and voices that run from belted to breathy to half spoken. More Spanish styles join the pack over time.