El Guincho - Alegranza!

Like Julio Iglesias, Pablo Diaz-Reixa was a promising Spanish soccer player before music knocked him off the ball. Now, as El Guincho, the Canary Islands-born, Barcelona-based Diaz-Reixa makes a funky tropical sound that is (happily) worlds away from Iglesias’ romantic mush. His debut album, mixing elements of island harmonies, Afrobeat rhythms, psych tropicália and futuristic samples, has the dizzying effect of excessive amounts of sangriá on a hot summer night. Intoxicating space-age exotica.