Don't Cheat: Ojos de Brujo and "Quien Engaña no Gana"

Short and sweet today, because I went on a hike and I have to go to an event tonight.

Today's random tune is Quien Engaña no Gana by Ojos de Brujo. The tile means "He who deceives doesn't win." Ojos de Brujo (Eyes of the Sorcerer) was a Spanish group from Barcelona active between 1998 and 2011. Flamenco was a central part of their sound, to which they fused hip hop, rumba, Afro-Cuban, dub and other types of music into a sound they called "flamenkillo." The group also took on social and political issues in Spain, but never directly. For instance, in highlighting poverty they wrote a song which looked through the eyes of a person who woke up hungry every morning. This approach made them popular among Spanish youth. Because their style was not pure flamenco, they came under criticism from flamenco purists but the group responded that they were under no illusion that they were a flamenco band. "...I would say that flamenco is the strongest ingredient, but we don't pretend we are doing flamenco," said one member of the band." Quien Engaña no Gana can be found on their 2005 album Bari, and also on the BBC R 3 Music Awards for World Music compilation album of 2005.