Bronquio Shares Remix of Flamenco Singer Rocío Márquez’s ‘Empezaron los Cuarenta’: Stream It Now
A new remix of flamenco singer Rocío Márquez's "Empezaron los Cuarenta" by Spanish electro-punk renegade Bronquio encapsulates the underground essence of authentic flamenco in a throbbing whirlpool of visceral beats. With Márquez's shivering vocals, the sound of barking dogs in the background, and reverbing echoes of flamenco's connection with psychedelic rock, it's music for a raving night on an Andalusian patio, and a call to protest.
Márquez, one of the most important contemporary interpreters of the Southern Spanish song, recorded "Empezaron los Cuarenta" on her latest album, Visto en el Jueves , for which she resurrected songs that she had discovered on albums and cassettes she bought at a neighbourhood flea market.
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"Empezaron los Cuarenta" was originally performed by José Menese (1942-2016), who began singing in his father's shoe store as a child and went on to flamenco fame. The lyrics, by poet Francisco Moreno, talk of the struggle to survive in the post-war period of Francoist Spain, in a country "Giving more goods to the rich and to the poor more miseries."
"In the current climate of regressions in rights and freedoms I felt it necessary to rescue pieces with an explicit political commitment," Márquez says.
Bronquio, a former member of a punk band called Gipsy Aliens, and now best known for his 2018 track "Galgo," is one of the artists to watch from a young urban music vanguard bubbling up in Southern Spain.
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