Uruguay, Uruguay, Uruguay Mixtape (50 years of Uruguayan Music)
02 December, 2010Uruguay has one of the richest musical histories of the South American countries. The tango and milonga were in fact partly developed, as were the early musical expeditions of Carlos Gardel, who was born in Tacuarembó in the north of Uruguay. In the mid-60s Uruguayan music even threatened to take over the continent as new bands popped up, invigorated by the sound of The Beatles and ready to imitate their heroes. The Uruguayan beat invasion became a huge phenomenom in Argentina and Brazil for a number of years before hard rock came into force in Argentina, and Brazilian forms such as bossa nova, samba and tropicalia became the most popular forms in that country.
Despite this lack of interest from abroad Uruguay still carried on developing its own artists. The main creative force was Eduardo Mateo, who is represented here by his solo recordings, as a member of El Kinto and as a composer for Diane Denoir. He helped create, along with Ruben Rada and other members of El Kinto, a new genre of music known as candombe beat, which remains hugely popular in Uruguay. Unfortunately the military dictatorship caused the shut-down of creative music-making in Uruguay, and their top artists would either leave the country (as with Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso of Los Shakers, who would leave to form Opa), disappear into obscurity (Mateo slipped off the scene for a number of years before being coerced back into the spotlight in the late 80s, or simply never get heard in the first place.
The dictatorship mainly promoted Canto Popular, which was a move away from electric instrumentation and towards traditional rhythms and styles. Although this stopped the progression of musical styles and creativity there were a number of good acts within the style, as demonstrated by Los Que Iban Cantando and Dino, both represented here. Bands like Rumbo would become popular amongst outsiders as the resistance picked up, and the possibility of democratic came back into the picture.
This mixtape, which has been sequenced in chronological order, hopes to show the path of Uruguayan music from the mid-60s to the present day, reflecting the ways in which the music has developed, and also how it has managed to remain at such a good quality throughout the years.
NB: Onda Vaga are not from Uruguay. They are from Argentina. We made a mistake! I hope you don’t hold it against us!
- Los Iracundos – El Robot
- Los Shakers – La Conferencia Secreta del Toto’s Bar / Aunt Clementina
- El Kinto – Que Me Importa
- Limonada – Pies Descalzos
- Hojas – Mi Ciudad a Traves de la Ventana
- Eduardo Mateo – Por Que?
- Dino – Nubecita Negra
- Diane Denoir – Esa Tristeza
- Opa – La Cumbia de Andres
- Los Que Iban Cantando – La del Chiflado Manuel
- Rumbo – Dequetescapás
- Ruben Rada y Eduardo Mateo – El Tordo
- Jorge Drexler – Aquellos Tiempos
- Leo Maslíah – Súperman
- Onda Vaga – Parque
[audio:http://soundsandcolours.com/static/2010/12/uruguay-uruguay-uruguay.mp3|titles=Uruguay, Uruguay, Uruguay Mixtape (50 years of Uruguayan music)]
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