Blogs

Tulipa Ruiz Remixed

By 01 July, 2014

If I was to name my favourite female Brazilian artist there would be little debate. There was a time when I was certain that Karina Buhr would be the one to blow me away, but she has yet to release a truly knock-out album. This is in contrast to Tulipa Ruiz, who has already released two of them, 2010’s Efêmera and 2012’s Tudo Tanto. Tulipa’s songs are pure poetry, micro-stories of life in São Paulo. On her first album these stories were accompanied by simple guitar and piano motifs, letting her voice steal the show. By the second record she’d already expanded her sound, collaborating with a wide variety of artists for a denser sound that still let her voice and lyrics steal the limelight.

On her new single, Tulipa Remixes, she has let two of São Paulo’s most interesting musicians remix two of her songs. Rica Amabis takes on “Aqui” from her debut album, with the help of carioca rapper BNegão, while Daniel Ganjaman (producer of Criolo, Sabotage, Racionais MC’s) opts for “Víbora” from Tudo Tanto. Both see the songs completely re-invented and are well worth a listen. Just check the videos below.

If you read Portuguese you can find out a little more at rollingstone.uol.com.br/blog/sobe-o-som/tulipa-ruiz-lanca-compacto-com-remixes-criados-por-rica-amabis-e-daniel-ganjaman-e-participacao-de-bnegao.

Catching up with Francisco Mejía aka Pacheko

By 19 May, 2014

At this moment in time it’s hard to imagine staying put in one place. For those with the possibility, movement (transnational, transcontinental, from one city to the next) becomes a way of life, and an opportunity for a change of perspective. Movement is vital for everyone, but even more so for musicians who get to absorb and be informed, not only by the music they hear along the way, but the sounds of a city, its culture, its art and its people. Hell, the whole tropical bass genre could’ve never existed without trains, planes, automobiles and the Internet. Just ask Francisco Mejía, who you might remember as Pacheko, one half of Pocz and Pacheko, the changa tuki revivalists who documented the music coming from the favelas in Caracas on ¿Quién Quiere Tuki?

When I first talked to Francisco, he was about to unleash Changa Letal along with Pocz and had just left behind Caracas for the colder Barcelona. Two years later, he’s put Pacheko on hiatus to focus on a new project under the name Phran. With his newest EP Bad Format, out today on Klasse Recordings, he set out to do something new, worlds away from the tropical bass that still remains in his heart. Incorporating influences from the ever innovative electronic music scene in Barcelona, his experience in his new environment and a changing perspective about life back home, Phran may just be one of the best new electronic music projects to come out of the Venezuelan expat scene. It has a vintage sound – a mixture of Chicago house, Detroit techno, the Berlin scene and even baile funk – but it’s not a throwback. It’s more about change, moving forward, learning, living, and finding a sound he can call his own.

I’ll let him tell his story:

Amaya García: A short while after the changa tuki documentary and your music with Pocz hit the web you made the jump from Caracas to Barcelona. How did you navigate your way through such a big change?

Francisco Mejía: “The change was much bigger than I could’ve imagined. Barcelona is an international city and there’s a lot of stuff going on because there’s people from all over the place. Nowadays, Venezuela is very isolated from the world, every day a little bit more. One of the things I’ve done the most since coming here is open my eyes and ears to the countless scenes, artistic forms and the music that I simply didn’t have access to in Venezuela. I go to a lot of record stores, ask around, and go to a lot of parties and concerts.

The internet more or less lets you find out about these things, but it’s never the same than to be in a city where all of this is happening. It’s the same for someone from Europe or the US who wants to know how life is in Venezuela; the internet will never give you the same experience as going there and living it out. The human experience will always be more profound than the Internet; my mind has opened up to a lot of stuff and I see things differently now. I’ve had to learn a lot of things, even how to speak a little bit of Catalan.”

AG: How did your new project “Phran” come about? Why did you decide to venture outside of the changa tuki genre?

FM: “I’ve never liked to tie myself to just one form of music making; I’m not one to repeat myself. For me, the normal thing is to evolve. Changa tuki is a very important influence for me and it will always stay that way; the same goes for dubstep, IDM and bass music. But, ever since I arrived in Barcelona, I started absorbing other types of music like techno, Chicago house, the Detroit sound, the stuff coming out of Berlin, and I also started getting into disco and soul, among other things.

I wanted to start a new project from scratch because, for me, being here is a new chapter. Pacheko isn’t “over” though, it just went into a kind of hiatus.”

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/users/140789″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

AG: Earlier you mentioned about opening up your mind more to the sounds of Barcelona. Specifically, which artists, sounds, genres and artistic movements inspired the tracks on Bad Format?

FM: “One of the things that has really motivated me is knowing that record stores like Discos Paradiso, Wah Wah Records, Subwax, Vinyl Vintage, Discos Juando (which, sadly, closed shop recently) and Lost Tracks still exist. The crate digging experience has no equal, and it’s a great source of inspiration and humility; you realize that music is infinite and the only way to appreciate that is by humbling yourself.

I’ve also been influenced by the work my friends Cardopusher and Nehuen are doing with their label Classicworks; radio shows like Canela en Surco by DJ Abu Sou, the people from Anomia, and all the deejays that have been spinning for a long time like Zero, Tony Bruce Lee, Fede Zerdan, DJ Der, David M, Gus, Astroboyz, Clip, Pau Roca…the list is really long. As I said, there’s so much going on in Barcelona. I think what a lot of people have in common over here is that they see music as a space where genres like ambient, soul, disco, funk, world music, house and techno can coexist without a problem. I share that point of view. That’s how you realize that a deejay’s sonic palette can be wide and, at the same time, coherent, personality wise.”

AG: I had mentioned to you in an earlier conversation that “Bad Format” has that nostalgic feel; a sonic throwback to an era where drum programming and beat making was more rudimental yet incredibly heavy. Sort of like the stuff Cybotron was doing in the 1980s, Derrick May and the like.

FM: “Maybe it’s because I’m working with an analog set-up now; I’m using rhythm boxes, distortions, and analog synthesizers. I think that’s where the similarities in timbres come from, but I definitely don’t want to make retro or nostalgic music. I want to make music that reflects my life day to day, from my home studio, my head and my relationship with the city.”

AG: How did you manage to bring this sound into the 21st century and, like you mention, making it about your own experience. It sounds very fresh too.

FM: “There’s no plan; there’s learning, work and evolution. I really don’t want to go retro, repeat or copy anyone. The way the world works nowadays, sometimes you feel that everything’s been done and nothing surprises anyone anymore. Personally, I work to make my music sound fresh and with a lot of personality. I think I have a long road ahead when it comes to exploring and creating my sound. This first EP as “Phran” is mostly made out of jams I created in my house between the last leg of 2013 and the first part of 2014. It’s the reflection of that constant search.

On tracks like “Fool Drive” and “Bad Format”, I try to emulate the feeling I get from some Brazilian baile funk, but evidently the result is something else and I’m really glad that’s what happened.”

AG: How did your relationship with Klasse Records begin?

FM: “Luca Lozano, Klasse’s owner, heard my track on Soundcloud and that’s how they contacted me. I didn’t know them, but their project, for me, it was perfect. Luca understood quickly where things were going and there’s been a symbiosis that I’m happy with. Over time, I’ve started to understand Klasse’s vision more and I really like it. I’m thankful to begin a new chapter with a label like Klasse, that’s growing and supports the vinyl format.”

AG: What’s in your future? Would you ever consider doing changa tuki again?

FM: “The only plan is to keep making music and to keep evolving. I would definitely make music inspired by changa tuki, but with a different twist. By the way, sometimes I try to emulate that sabor that changa tuki or baile funk has. I’ve tried it with the rhythm boxes and a lot of weird stuff comes out that doesn’t necessarily sound like those genres; it’s something different and weird and I like it.

The word “crossover” is one that I can’t get out of my head when I’m making music. I like those tracks that can seep into techno, house or changa sets and still work.”

AG: This is for the gearheads like me out there. What equipment did you use while recording Bad Format?

FM: “Rhythm boxes: Mfb-522, MBase01, Yamaha Rx8. For the synthesizers: Vermona Mono Lancet, Juno106, Casio SA 39, plus distortion and delay pedals for guitars, but connected to all of this equipment.”

Bad Format is out today on Klasse Records and available as a download from Juno. The vinyl release will be out later this month. The official release will be held in Barcelona the 14th of June.

A Glimpse into Barrio Lindo’s Sacred Spaces

By 06 May, 2014

I have to admit it took me a few listens to understand what Barrio Lindo a.k.a Agustín Rivaldo was trying to communicate in his debut album Menoko. The rhythms are familiar; minimal electronic music meets the sounds of the Argentinean (and South American) land, a path treaded before by ZZK star Chancha via Circuito. He’s a frequent collaborator of Rivaldo’s, yet the comparison feels too lazy, too immediate and too conclusive. It would take away a bit of merit from what Barrio Lindo has accomplished with Menoko: music that thrives in its subtleties and slow build-ups, with surprising sonic textures where bombastic and dance-floor ready jams are the law of the land. Welcome to Barrio Lindo’s world.

Rivaldo’s biography is well known: an Argentinean with a half-Colombian, half-Argentine father, who moved to Colombia to educate himself about the country’s traditional music and folklore. He’s been producing electronica for a while, but it feels like Menoko is the ultimate statement to honour that experience; a concept album of sorts. It should come as no surprise that the record feels like a trip into uncharted territory, as the word menoko comes from the Mapuche. It means sacred places. Starting with “Balseros” and climaxing with the lead single “Garza Bruja”, Rivaldo intersperses tribal chants and the sounds of the forest with pulsing electronic beats meant to soundtrack a journey. The slow build-up of the first half of the album (which features the excellent Chancha via Circuito collaboration “La Cueva”) could be akin to storytelling, evoking the natural, the organic… the perfect storm that is wild nature.

The album also features a pop sensibility almost unheard of in folktronica until now. On tracks like “El Aire”, cumbia rhythms and synths dominate, but on “Libre” Rivaldo keeps the cumbia at bay in order to favour other instruments like the flute and the charango. What makes the track so enthralling is the sample that precedes the percussion and the synth line: a little girl telling a story about freedom. He changes his tune on “Afuera” to make an excellent ambient recording. But what really surprised me about the album is the fact that it is almost exclusively driven by percussion. Yes, the cumbia is there, but there are also other types of drumming influenced by the African ancestry of the region.

Those hard-driving, heartbeat-altering drums are what drive the point home on the second half of the record, divided by Barrio Lindo and Chancha’s dark “La Cueva”. Rather than introspection and the illusion of slow movement, “Visión”, “Garza Bruja” and “Yaguareté Abá” inspire dancing; the kind of dancing that lifts you up and keeps you hopeful. That division is what makes Rivaldo’s endeavour stand out: he gives you space for dancing and space for thinking.

Menoko is a beast of a record that requires time to work itself into your heart. Once it does, it makes you part of an incredible journey through time and space. But beware, by the time it takes you in, it won’t be Rivaldo’s journey you’ll be going on, it’ll be your own.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/6961779″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Killer shoegaze and experimental dance brewing in Perú

By 14 April, 2014

During the last few years, Latin American electronic music in all of its mixed glory has been creeping its way onto playlists, DJ sets from tastemakers across the globe –like Daniel Haaksman and Diplo to name only two- and has even started to take a stronghold on influential stages like Berlin’s Boiler Room sets. The latest edition featured Mexican producer Rebolledo, who happens to keep good company with Brazilian wunderkind Gui Borrato, Chilean rising star Alejandro Paz, Argentineans Gustavo Lamas and Leandro Fresco, and a host of others on the German label Kompakt’s ever expanding roster.

A longer list could be written about all of the groundbreaking (and not so groundbreaking) electronic music that is coming out of Latin America, but the real reason all of these artists have been included in the same sentence is because they’re all aces in very different genres, from minimal techno and tech-house to kwaito influenced dance music. For the last five years or so, digital cumbia has been dominating the conversation but, while I understand that the novelty and danceability of the fusion is undeniable, sacrificing everything else is not only problematic, it’s kind of a bad choice. Incredible digitial cumbia (or digital folklorika) like Barrio Lindo’s new album Menoko –which I will talk about in a later post- is still being made and is slowly transforming; equally great dance hybrids are coming out of Perú, for example. Here at Synth Seer nothing will be out of bounds, but special attention will be paid to those artists that are killing it in many other genres and style fusions (big ups to Matías Aguayo’s Cómeme label). Don’t worry, I’ll talk about digital cumbia, just not all the time.

I wanted to start things off with Perú, a country whose music scene is as varied as a candy store, but yet doesn’t always register on everyone’s radar, including my own. I have profiled elsewhere acts like Dengue Dengue Dengue and the experimental indie artist Lobo Gris, who’s haunting mixture of classical and minimal you can find here, but that’s barely scratching the surface. We’ll start off slow, with the free compilation Gritos al Vacío, and its second installment Gritos y Secuencias: Shoegaze en el Perú Part II, compiled by the folks at El Blog del Bam, along with the help of various Peruvian netlabels. As they point out, the purpose of these compilations is to highlight the independent artists at the vanguard of the non-commercial Peruvian music scene; artists who mix rock and roll with various forms of electronic dance music, from the oft-maligned IDM tag to ambient, experimental psychedelia, shoegaze a la My Bloody Valentine and everything else in between.

Congratulations to them for taking on such an ambitious project, as both compilations span a time period that goes from the early 90s (when Pete Tong played hardcore and it was “the right speed”), to the mid-2000s. Gritos y Secuencias: Shoegaze en el Perú Part II is an expertly sequenced soundtrack with something for everyone, not just electronic music fans. Starting with straight up dense rockers like Ozono, Avalonia, and Diosmehaviolado and alternating with glitch/noise like Pastizal and the heady minimal ambient of Ida, which will frankly, blow your mind. It was specifically impressive how Ida managed to create music that fills up the space with bass and yet uses silence so wisely and hauntingly with lingering synth lines and low frequency oscillators. Dreamworks and Apolo are also noteworthy in this compilation.

You can downoad it for free here. If you’re a fan of electronic music, keep coming back regularly because this will get more hardcore as I keep scouring the web for more interesting electronic music projects from across South America.

 

Music in Film at BAFICI

By 10 April, 2014

Cinema is becoming an ever more important point of reference in my life for discovering new music. It’s probably because I watch a wider variation of films, and also listen to a wider variation of sounds, than I used to, but I can’t deny that film soundtracks nowadays regularly turn me on to new things. There’s the well-known examples, like the classic soundtracks on Amores Perros and City of God, but plenty of other films have also featured some exquisite music. Peru’s The Milk of Sorrow was another regional success with a beautiful signature tune. I could put that 1:37 minute melody on a loop and just let it go for several days before I even noticed its velvety effervescence seeping into my consciousness.

At BAFICI, there’s been some fantastic music. Writing previously about Ecuadorean documentary Carlitos, I mentioned the achingly mournful ‘La Lluvia, El Niño y La Flor’ by Natalia Guayasamín. I normally avoid anything with pianos like I avoid getting peppersprayed in the eyes, but there can be no denying the beauty of that song. Unfortunately, I can’t find it online so if anyone knows what I’m talking about, please post the link. The trailer for Carlitos features some pretty bonkers afrocumbia grind, which doesn’t actually appear and seems pretty far removed from the reflective tone of José Antonio Guayasamín’s film. But there’s a time and a place for everything and, yes, that trailer tune is a real bum-juggler.

Chile’s Protistas play out Matías Rojas’ award-winning (at the Valdivia Film Fest) Raíz, which I reviewed here, even if they are overshadowed by the banging collision between the untitled trip hop tune and the southern valley which directly preceded their big moment. Nice song though, showing that Chilean indie can spring a surprise every now and again.

What about this one then? Some insipid, waffly guitar gurners head to Peru on a quest for the mystical properties of ayahuasca and the galaxy’s greatest psychedelic cumbia in Planta Madre, directed by Gianfranco Quattrini. Imagine if Joseph Conrad and Jimi Hendrix had ever written a screenplay together. It would be nothing like this, but it’s an intriguing idea.

The next one is not strictly South American (OK, it’s not at all South American) but Luís Lopez Carrasco’s El Futuro, a visual ode to eighties hipsters partying in Madrid, drinking, pouting and sucking each other’s nipples, was a real musical treat, opening my eyes to la crema de la crema of the era’s Spanish punk and electro from bands like Última Emoción, Ataque de Kaspa and the tremendous Flácidos Lunes. Online mag Numerocero put in the legwork with this excellent article on the film’s soundtrack. Gracias, amigos.

Brazilian representation comes through the story of Dominguinhos in the film, erm, Dominguinhos. The musician, who died last year, played with most of the greats and merged styles seamlessly through bossa nova, jazz and pop, always laced with his signature sound of baião. It’s a nice film and he’s a real character, difficult to not smile at the wealth of onscreen music and happiness.

Argentinean documentary Buenos Aires Rap is about grunge in São Paulo. Haha, just joking. The film looks at hip hop’s roots in Argentina, its ability to bridge social divides and how the scene has developed since first emerging in Buenos Aires in the early 90s. As an overview of one of Latin America’s lesser-known subcultures, it makes some mothereffin’ noise with contributions from regional rap titans such as Dante Spinetta, Jazzy Mel (from Uruguay) and Actitud María Marta. Swap hip hop for electronic music and you have another Argentinean documentary, Conexion Sur, directed by Dolores Lagrange

Now, I know that the need to learn more about the Chilean rockabilly scene is something that’s been clawing away at your insides recently, so it’s a good thing that director Matías Pinochet made Los Rockers: Rebelde Rock’n’Roll. After pianos, I make sure I keep my distance from anything that takes Elvis as a reference. But, again, it’s an interesting portal into a distinctive regional music scene.

There were also films about some nobodies called the Arctic Roses and the Stone Monkeys, but I couldn’t find anything about them online. Feel free to enlighten me.

 

 

 

Day Two at the Buenos Aires Film Festival

By 04 April, 2014

It’s an eclectic old bag at BAFICI, with a programme offering everything from analytical deliberations on contemporary Latin American society to 80s B-movie shlockers like Maniac Cop and FrankenHooker. In the opening two days of the festival, I’ve stuck resolutely to the former, mindful of my reporting duties and keen to check out what’s happening in South American filmmaking. But it’s now Friday, a time tradionally reserved for late night cinematic extremities so, having spent the last couple of days digesting some of the more artistic and reflective festival content, tonight it’s time for a slasher. In addtion to Maniac Cop, I’m intrigued by the premise for Escape from Tomorrow, filmed guerrilla-style in that most nightmarish realm of pure evil: Disneyland. Brr, I get chills just thinking about it.

On to topics with more South American relevance, and Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor, whose Thursday to Sunday made an international splash last year, is back with a short film made in tandem with Polish filmmaker Katarzyna Klimkiewicz. As with Thursday to Sunday and several other recent Chilean films, La Isla uses the country’s natural aesthetic to build a sense of escapist poetry, set around the loose narrative of a family vacationing on a southern island. Some of the cinematography is superb, never more so than on the incredible stillness of a lake in the early morning.

I wrote about Carlitos yesterday, the Ecuadorean documentary from José Antonio Guayasamín about a young disabled man who struggles to communicate with those around him. The film, which is competing in the Best International Film category, drifts in and out of Carlitos’ daily existence, as he attends speech therapy, plays with his family, and works in a grim-looking frankfurter factory. In spite of the obvious challenges he faces in life, he is not slow to crack a grin, probably due to the spirit of his devoted mother Noemí, who not only has Carlitos to contend with but also another, younger, son and an elderly father who seems to be permanently teetering on the edge. It is a touching film, and in Natalia Guayasamín’s (who may or may not be related to the director) closing song ‘La Lluvia, El Niño y La Flor’, it features one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time.

Whereas some films regale in their simplicity, others create some pretty far-out notions, as is the case with La Última Película. Spanish in title but North American in concept and production, this is part fictional narrative, part documentary, part surrealist painting, and part holiday home movie, all colliding headfirst around the Mayan prediction of the end of the world. The film seeks to draw a line between the earthly apocalypse and the cinematic one, as the celluloid world is obliterated in parallel to that of the Mayans.  I’ll be surprised if there are many more slappable faces in film this year than Alex Ross Perry’s central character who is making the fictional film which exists within the actual film. Fortunately, there is a strong sense of irony involved and it is pretty funny as he walks round the Mayan ruins on the end of days expressing his hatred for the many ridiculous ‘earth-children’ hippies who have descended on the area.

Apart from the Hitherto lack of late-night celluloid bloodshed, it’s been an excellent festival so far.

Pulsating Rhythms from São Paulo’s Response Pirituba

By 13 February, 2014

My favourite track off Mais Um Discos‘ last compilation, Daora – Underground Sounds of Urban Brasil, was undoubtedly Response Pirituba‘s “M. B. Williams”, a frenetic, pulsating groove that builds and builds into a wall of sound, a variety of synth grooves locking into the already potent mix of drum and bass.

Response Pirituba is the project of Marcos Gerez (Hurtmold) and Cleber Dantas (Polara). It was initially created as a side project from their other bands, using ideas that they’d not had the chance to use elsewhere, but increasingly it’s sounding like its own thing, with a strong sonic identity of keyboards, loops and drums (with Miguel Gerez adding live drums to some of their recordings).

“M. B. Williams” has been released on the almighty Desmonta Discos as a 7″/digital download together with “Boro”, a subtler though no less hypnotic track from the duo. It’s fair to say this is a band we’ll be keeping an eye on.

If you’re lucky enough to be in SP you can see them live on February 18th at SESC Pompeia.

Listen to both tracks below:

Welcome

By 06 February, 2014

Bienvenidos and bem-vindo to a new feature on the Sounds and Colours website, which is the presence of blogs. This is mine, and I plan for it to be the home of all the little bits and pieces of amazing South American culture that I encounter every week but struggle to find the time to write a whole article about, or that possibly just need a more informal touch.

To start the ball rolling, here’s a band which I think are gonna blow a lot of people’s minds internationally this year (something they’ve already been doing in Colombia over the past 12 months). So, here are El Callegueso y la Mamba Negra (aka the new band of Jacobo from La Mojarra Elétrica – so expect greatness!):

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/2692670″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”350″ iframe=”true” /]