Prezident Markon’s New Singles Round-Up: (Dos Santos, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Marina Mole, Loma Suyo, El Pony Express, Joyce & Tutty Moreno, Orchestra Mambo International and more)

Well, thus far the heat hasn’t claimed me, although last weekend the air was thick with the odour of forests burning near Bordeaux. What can one do except present the next batch of new singles from around the Latin world and imagine that life goes on as normal? To quote Chuck Brown of Soul Searchers fame, Here… we go again!

Dos Santos: “Money Gun”

I’m about to embark on a review of the band’s new album, so let’s start with a single taken from Es Amor. I cannot tell a lie, I’m very fond of this Chicago-based band of international expatriates led by Alex Chávez and featuring the eminent Daniel Villarreal on drums. Both the single and what I’ve heard of the album underline why I’m a fan. The single just about encapsulates most of what there is to love about this band: shades of retro cumbia, rock, jazz all tied up in compelling Afro-Cuban rhythms – and top-notch songwriting.

Hermanos Gutiérrez: “Los Ojos Del Cóndor”

And it just so happens that the Swiss-Ecuadorian sibling guitar duo’s latest album is another on my to-do list. I’d already flagged up the title track as a “track to try” without realising that it’s the new single. Very fine it is, too, and again it typifies more or less everything that the musical brothers are all about. Their music is quietly entrancing, plunging you straight into scenes from atmospheric films – this one clearly set in the Andes. “Makes a painter run for his brushes,” as someone commented.

Marina Mole: “Slowdancing”

Here’s a brand new and very stylish video filmed on the streets of São Paulo to accompany a single taken from this punky Brazilian artist’s album, Azucrim, due for release later this year. Recorded analogically on reel-to-reel tape, its feel suggests someone quite influenced by Patti Smith. It’s a collaboration apparently with the poet Guilherme Ziggy and there’s certainly a little sprinkling of stardust in the resulting sound.

Son Rompe Pera: “El Reencuentro”

I know I featured the Austin-based Mexico City band’s last single in June, but the new one is quite different and every bit as good. It revisits a melody that the Gama brothers, the beating hearts of the band, first heard while riding the old neighbourhood buses back home. The melody later served as background music for an Alcoholics Anonymous Public Service Announcement and would play a key role in helping them leave behind their world of chaos and addictions.

Juliana Beltrán: “Ay Tú”

Anyone for a bit of domestic bliss? I hesitated with this one, not because I’m averse to domestic bliss, quite the contrary really, but because, well… You’ll see what I mean. It’s almost a case of gag me with a spoon, but it’s kind of too sweet to ignore. The singer-songwriter is Colombian by birth and based in the City of Angels, California. The track is all about finding the kind of love that “makes every past heartbreak feel worthwhile”. Good luck to her; I hope they’ll be very happy together.

João Selva, Diogo Strausz and Patchworks: “Fazer Festa”

Moving swiftly on to something closer to home… Underdog Records of Lyon have become almost synonymous with the ubiquitous producer and musical man-about-town, Bruno Patchworks, and to a lesser extent the expat Brazilian singer-songwriter, João Selva. The latter met up with his fellow countryman, Diego Strausz, last summer at Patchworks’ Ginger X studio to create the kind of party-hearty track that they’d long talked about. I’ve never entirely got disco out of my system and this infectious concoction suggests that neither have the three collaborators. A little reminiscent of Marcos Valle’s approach to the genre, it’ll surely get you up onto the good foot. If not… see me after school. And take that ridiculous smirk off your face.

Loma Suyo: “Colibri”

After that strenuous workout, what better way to get your breath back than this gorgeous single from Paloma, an album that came out last week. Loma Suyo seem to be principally a duo based in the beautiful Catskill mountains of upstate New York: Liz Fullerton and Ish Quintero. Presumably it’s the latter who brings the South American flavours and cadences to the album and this particular song, a homage to the tiny hummingbirds whose return to North American gardens from South and Central America marks the arrival of spring. Isn’t nature wonderful? Isn’t this a lovely song?

Leandro Serido: “G-HD”

Lest you drift off into some somnambulant dreamworld, here’s some rage against life’s machinery from a Brazilian singer-songwriter in cahoots here with hip-hop duo, Kim & Dramma. The single is taken from his new album, Sol Quimérico, which arrives at the end of this month. The single channels, I’m told, his reflections on “the chaotic, fragmented experience of contemporary existence shaped by technology”. I’m also told that the album ultimately balances anxiety about the digital age with the possibility of renewal. Sol Quimérico sounds like the ultimate in prog-rock concept albums; you can read all about it in Andy Cumming’s truly fascinating interview with this thoughtful artist.

Rizomagic: “Las Esferas”

All right, you lot! Here’s what you’ve been clamouring for… Yes, a bit of “Psychotropicolombian Futurism”, or, in layperson’s terms, a bit of ambient electronica. Recorded in Switzerland, it comes courtesy of Colombian electronic production duo, Rizomagic, and it’s taken from their new (third) album of lo-fi cumbia grooves. Very nice and curiously compelling it is, too.

Humano: “Lo Que Quiero” (B E N N re-mix)

While on an electronic trip, and since I missed the original EP, here’s one of the re-mixes from the Lyon-based Latin producer and DJ’s latest EP, featuring the original number and four re-mixes by four “global bass visionaries”. What does one have to do, I wonder, to be counted as a “global bass visionary”? While you ponder that, here’s the spaced-out Taipei visionary B E N N’s take on the original.

Orchestra Mambo International: “Olufina”

And now for something rather more human. Gilles Peterson “love[s] the vocal arrangement on this” single taken from the debut album (come September) of a big band of international expatriates based in the UK and formed by brass-band alumnus, Jonny Enright, and “salsa encyclopaedia”, Lubi Jovanovic. It’s a belter that features the venerable Venezuelan, Carlos “Pachanga” Peña, on lead vocals. I await ¡Apúntalo! with fidgety feet. Catch them if you can during their autumn tour of England sponsored by the Arts Council.

El Pony Express: “Tormenta Tropical”

Drama galore now from the quintet from Sonora that likes to blend contemporary alt-rock, cumbia and traditional Latin music. This tormented tropical number follows “Bonnie y Clyde” and “Chingando Baby” as the third chapter of their new EP, Canciones de Amor y Otras Drogas Vol. 1, whose translation you can probably guess at. It captures apparently the moment of break-up within a relationship, while the accompanying cinematic video concludes the narrative with scenes of the emotional aftermath of conflict and separation. El Pony Express: it’s a name to conjure with.

Tony Succar & Mimy Succar: “Lo Bueno Viene Ya”

Well yes, the video’s a little on the cheesy side, but there’s no denying the sheer brio and joy of the performance. There’s always room in my life for some salsa and this is seriously good stuff. It’s taken from an album featured in last month’s “Nunca Tarde”, Asuccar. It tells a musical tale of Lim Bances, a Peruvian woman whose story of migration, hard work and faith exemplifies the song’s central message: to keep moving forward with the certainty that good things are on the way. Tony’s mum Mimy delivers the message with gusto and captivating enthusiasm. The performance was filmed apparently at Terraza Lima Club, an exclusive rooftop venue in downtown Lima, as per Tony’s half-Peruvian (half-Japanese) roots.

Joyce and Tutty Moreno: “Is This Love?”

Here’s something that warms the cockles of my heart: the great Joyce Moreno and drummer-husband Tutty re-united on record. It’s a single taken from the August Jazz Is Dead release, number 27 in the series. Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad don’t always get it right – sometimes their attempts to revive the careers of past (demi-)legends have fallen on deaf ears – but judging by the single, it’s a marriage made in… Los Angeles, actually. That Joyce, that voice, she rarely puts a foot wrong.

Lenny Tavárez: “Folded”

As a general rule of thumb, I tend to give anything with even a hint of AutoTune a wide berth, and I can’t say that I know the original song, Kehlani’s “Folded”, but the Puerto Rican star has earned himself a Grammy Reimagined nomination for this Spanish language version, so… What’s more, he’s joined Apple’s Platoon, which is no doubt an “ossom” accolade, and he’s clocked up 11 billion streams – which is not a misprint, but roughly one stream per every single man, woman and child on this earth. In other words, we should take note. “I’ve always believed music has the power to connect cultures. Reimagining ‘Folded’ as a bachata version allowed me to explore a different side of my artistry while bringing my own identity and roots into the record,” the artist himself suggests. Without further ado, will you welcome please…

Silvan Galvão: “Céu de Alter do Chão”

I’m ashamed to say that I know very little about this Brazilian artist, but it’s a very pleasant single and, moreover, it’s produced by the estimable Apollo Nove, whose lovely, spacy Res Inexplicata Volans I picked up many years ago for a derisory 50 centimes. Which reminds me, it’s been a while…

Mau k: “Cortejo”

And while we languish in Brazil, here’s a nice way to conclude this month’s offering. If I’ve got this right, “Cortejo” comes from an EP called Cortejos by an artist from São Leopoldo, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. It’s his initial release after years of working in music, design, photography and audiovisual art. Discernibly influenced by the American nu-jazz guitarist, Jeff Parker, it’s the kind of quietly contemplative music that befits the son, apparently, of a Zen Buddhist nun. “Initially,” Mr. K explains, “it was a sadder EP. Along the way, the sadness gradually faded and made room for other feelings. The feeling is something between meditation, desolation, and hope.”

That’s all for this month, folks. Remember, you heard it here first on Sounds and Colours. Possibly.

(Thanks to Ciaran Wilson for our cover photo of Orchestra Mambo International.)

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