Hip Flamenco Billy

Mártires del Compás

Sin Papeles (World Village)

Mártires del Compás represents the hip contemporary urban sound of

Seville, the capital of Andalucía (southern Spain). The Martyrs of the
Rhythm combine edgy Gypsy rumba, smokin’ rock, the new sounds of hip hop, and
electric flamenco. The rumba from

Seville is not as slick as the overproduced Catalan rumba. Instead, the

Seville rumba has a rootsier sound, with a lot of jamming and great
interaction between vocals, palmas (handclapping) and guitars. The rock element in

Mártires del Compás reminds me of the golden era of flamenco rock in the mid
1970s. That was the time when Andalusian innovators like Triana, Iman, Gualberto
and Medina Azahara combined electric flamenco with progressive rock.

Leading the group are the unmistakable gut-wrenching raspy vocals of Chico Ocaña,
who uses flamenco vocal techniques. His lyrics ignore political correctness and
encourage social activism. Ocaña criticizes the environmental policies that
allowed the Prestige oil spill catastrophe that took place in Galicia
(northwestern Spain) in 2002. Ocaña also defends the rights of undocumented
African immigrants (the title of the album, Sin Papeles, no Papers, is a
reference to immigration) who desperately try to cross the Strait of Gibraltar
to get the “riches” of Europe. As Chico Ocaña says in the liner notes: “The
only weapons of mass destruction that we will never find, are those of hunger
and injustice..”

Mártires del Compás will be touring North America. For more information,
click on

Mártires del Compás Tours North America.

Recordings available: No Papers, Mordiendo El Duende, Flamenco Billy, Sinpapeles Es Conpapeles Son, Prohibido Da El Cante