Negu Gorriak

Negu Gorriak (Basque for "Red Winters" or "Harsh Winters") is an underground European rock group. Their musical style combines rock, hip-hop, and reggae. It is impossible, however, to separate the band from its political ideology and its identification with the Basque Country and its language (Euskara).

Members

*Fermin Muguruza Lead Singer
*Iñigo Muguruza Guitarist
*Kaki Arkarazo Guitarist
*Mikel Anestesia Bassist since Gure Jarrera
*Mikel Bap Drummer since Gure Jarrera

History

Negu Gorriak is born after the ska group Kortatu was disbanded in the most popular point of its career in order to avoid creative settlement. The influences from Os Resentidos, old school rappers, Public Enemy, NWA and Shinehead are very clear in their eponymic record where the drums are sequenced and the sampler becomes very present.

In 1991 two new members will become part of the group: Mikel Anestesia and Mikel Bap, incrementing considerably the quality and depth of music of the band. In that year they also created Esan Ozenki (say it out loud, in Basque), their own record label. Published in 1991, Gure Jarrera would make Negu Gorriak both famous (as the most solid group of the Basque music rock scene) and infamous (for the song Ustelkeria, which will lead to them to court).

The band's next output (Gora Herria) would be an EP with covers and dub music remixes with the collaboration of their friend Manu Chao. This can be consider a "bridge work" that separates Negu Gorriak early efforts and their 1993 Borreruak Baditu Milaka Aurpegi (The hangman is the man of the thousand faces, a verse from to writer Bernardo Atxaga), perhaps the best record of their career. In it the guitars grow angry, and the lyrics become more poetic and somewhat less political; feelings take over and there are clears notes of frustration and pain. Musically, the record moves from hip hop to punk to ska and rock with extreme naturality.

The tour following Borreruak Baditu Milaka Aurpegi created a big expectation and received a deserved press coverage. At the end of it Hipokrisiari Stop! (Stop Hipocrisy!) their only live album would be published.

The above mentioned song Ustelkeria is about a Guardia Civil (Spain) coronel, Enrique Rodríguez Galindo. The lyrics comment news accusing him of selling stolen cocaine in order to obtain money for the terrorist group GAL. In 1993 the Coronel sued the band, which was condemned to deliver Rodríguez Galindo 15 million pesetas. There would be appeals and other process in order to avoid paying the amount of money, which could lead into giving all the music rights and the record label to Rodríguez Galindo. The band then created a campaign Hitz Egin (Speak!) that consisted in the publishing a limited edition of an EP, Ustelkeria, and a tour. Several artists showed their solidarity with Negu Gorriak's cause, sharing the view that the veredict attacked the right to freedom of speech.

One year later Idea Zabaldu (Spread the Idea) was released. The influence of long visits to Latin America (and the Zapatista revolution) and the birth of Fermin Muguruza's son is not small. The band has grown mature and children mortality in the third world and AIDS are very present both in the lyrics and also in the tone of the recording. Not so angry and aggressive, Idea Zabaldu would be their last recording with original songs.

Salam Agur would be Negu Gorriak's last album. In it they decided to salute their friends and music influences by covering some of their favourite songs. Influential artists covered were BAP