ESTÁ LOCO

Multicultural Flamenco-pop from Ghent.

Está Loco (a Spanish sentence meaning : "It's Crazy") is the band of Rembert De Smet, who started this group after the successes of his famous eighties funky popband Twee Belgen died down. De Smet found a refuge in the "Hogar Español", a Spanish house in Ghent : "There was a whole bunch of friends playing guitar there, teaching each other their songs. Initially, I joined them phonetically, like a parrot, but I liked it so much I took lessons in Spanish and eventually got to the stage where I could write songs in that language".

As he explained his change of course "At the end of the eighties, technology was taking things over. The band had become too complicated. I was sick with nerves, afraid that some machine or other would break down. With Está Loco, I could put all my material in a 2PK and play wherever I wanted. It's a physical thing, and much more honest. I'm really glad I found this way out".

In 1994, he came out with his new project for the first time : almost completely solo he recorded, produced and wrote the album "A Fuego Lento". The result was a consistent album, which was dubbed as "a creative rebirth" of the singer. Especially the songs "Caminante" and "Llorar" got good airplay during the summer. Live, he performed with two guitars and a dancer.

In the years that followed, De Smet became a father twice, and the band got enlarged to a group of seven musicians (Hilde Geelen, dancer, the brothers Lopez-Vega, Djamel -who is part of the arabo-folk formation Olla Vogola - Jan Marmenout ...). Instead of working from the melody and guitar, the new songs got composed from the rhythm & percussion. He put together a show called "Gracias a los Poetas", a programme in dance- and songs based on Spanish and South-American poetry from bygone days. "Expect a lot of new songs, exciting versions of Esta Loco-classics, Cuban son, very spicy dance by Hilde. I hope your eyes, ears ànd hips will itch", said the announcement.

The second album of Esta Loco came out in 1999, wrapped in a sleeve depicting two of the people from the "Hogar Español". Singles became "Orillas Del Mar" (lyrics by Luis de Góngora y Argote) and a new flamenco-version of "Lena" (the biggest hit of his previous band Twee Belgen). "Even before the first CD, I had translated "Quand le film est triste" and "Lena" as an exercise. Lena is the only song that never really has left me. It was one of the first that I wrote, back in 1980-81. The translated text fitted the music miraculously, and we have played this song live a lot. That's why we've put in on the CD".

"As long as I feel as I have something to add to music, that I can cause some chemical reaction between genres, I'll continue to do so", Rembert declared. "In that regard, I feel like a true Belgian. All those different influences and cultures : I live in Ghent and talk and play with Arabs, Turks, Africans almost every day. I hope that melting pot can survive for a very long time."

Band members (op "Cerca de Ti"):
- Rembert De Smet : voz, guitarra, maracas, acordeón, bajo, panderetas, güiro, Toms, Cua, bangamandolina, claves, cuicatom
- Agaric : congas, bongos, chékeres, cajon, huevos, cajon, toms, cascara, rotomons, maracas, catañuelas
- Luis Lopez Vega : bajo, requinto, güiro
- Djamel : derbuka, voz
- Willy Seeuws : bongos
- Jan Marmenout : congas, campana, quinto, cuá
- Joan Williams Gallego : requinto, jaleo
- Geert Simoen : derbuka, chiquitsi, congas
- Hilde Geelen, Kamel Lebbad, Marjan Willem, Annemie Piron : coro

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- A Fuego Lento (CNR, 1994)
- Cerca de Ti (CNR, 1999)

Websites :
- There's some info at the website of Arcade/CNR

Forum :
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