Loading details…
Loading details…
Album
Mettavolution, the title of acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela's fifth studio album, is drawn from two distinct words. "Metta" is Sanskrit for loving kindness, compassion for self and others, and one of Buddhism's engines of "bodhichitta," the awakened heart's desire to benefit all beings through meditation and action. The word "revolution," with its Latin root, offers several meanings, including "a fundamental change in the way of thinking about something." What does Mettavolution have to do with rock & roll, particularly the metal- and flamenco-influenced inspiration of R&G's music? Doesn't beautiful music benefit all who encounter it? Mettavolution is the first studio album by the duo in five years. After revisiting their root inspirations for 2014's fine 9 Dead Alive, R&G vowed to "reconnect with the physical rush and emotional core of the music they first made together." They developed material in their studio in Ixtapa on Mexico's Pacific coast, roadtested it, then sent it to producer and collaborator Dave Sardy in Los Angeles; the latter also contributes bass, percussion, and selective "synth effects" to these songs. While the album's most previewed track is a sense-altering 19-minute cover of Pink Floyd’s "Echoes," it's in the five front-end cuts where R&G reveal their latest musical evolution. The title track displays Gabriela Quintero's furious, flamenco-inspired rhythmic invention as the duo's musical heartbeat. She flits through jazz and R&B syncopation, poin