Showing posts with label carlos matsuo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carlos matsuo. Show all posts

Onda Temporal, Episodio Doce: Calafia Puta


Queen Calafia, has been depicted as the Spirit of California, and has been the subject of modern-day sculpture, paintings, stories and films. She often figures in the myth of California's origin, symbolizing an untamed and bountiful land prior to European settlement. The character of Calafia is used by Rodríguez de Montalvo to portray the superiority of chivalry in which the attractive virgin queen is conquered, converted to Christian beliefs and married off. Is a part of California history, and she also reinforces the fact that when Hernán Cortés named the place California, he had 300 black people with him.This history allows me to conclude the fact that this band calls this queen a "puta" because of the paganism and violence that develops its origin, all the unjust acts committed in absurd unjustified ways by the spanish crown and religion for the conquest and colonization of America. Not as barbaric as the ideology planted by the grindcore band Brujería in one of the greatest records of mexican power metal called Matando Güeros, but more intimate, regional and involved with their country and Tijuana.

Listening to Calafia Puta is like attending to a Mike Tyson fights, just when you're excited, everything is finished with a knockout. But, what did you expect from powerviolence? Is a raw, aggressive and dissonant subgenre of hardcore punk. So, there's no room and time for sentimentalism or melody here. All that matters is the content, the way in which an idea is expressed. Their lyrics are verses dedicated to the youth and sung with the revivifying aggression of modern time violence. And like that, this is maybe the best way of ending Onda Temporal, the Club Fonograma's expected journey recorded in unexpected places by a big and not-so big artists. In this one-minute performance of "Manifiesto Anarcojunior," Calafia Puta improvised on the street ringing in arrangements of the best trasheo tijuanense and sing "Más que un saludo, es un adiós. Mi más sentido pésame, hace tiempo nos mudamos de este mundo para siempre". All the chapters of Onda Temporal scoped by Carlos Matsuo's were not only live sessions, were living expressions.

Labels: , , ,

Onda Temporal, Episodio Nueve: San Pedro El Cortez


While Carlos Matsuo (the man behind the curation, lensing, and development of Onda Temporal) is known for several contributions to cultural production, he’s best known for helming BASURA, a documentary about San Pedro El Cortez (as the subject to survey an up-and-coming reform in Mexican music). In a way, we can see Onda Temporal as an extension of BASURA, and opening its themes and geographic agency through twelve different subjects. This episode reunites Matsuo with the Tijuana garage band, who perform an acoustic –or as they call it, “la version chiilleta”- of “Poder Crudo.” Shot at night with glimpses of a not-so-well lighted city behind them, the camera registers the band in an elliptic movement. The confronting and close proximity of the camera speaks of the relationship between the band (that is or acts intoxicated) and the man with the camera (whose camera also starts to get dizzy towards the end).

Labels: , , , ,

Onda Temporal, Episodio Cinco: Ulises Zarazua


The fifth episode of Onda Temporal presents us with another virtually unknown artist, one whose only reference (at least to us) is his association to the roster of Vale Vergas Discos, which recently announced it would be re-launching as Estados Unidos de America Latina. Arriving right at the middle of the series, Guerrero Negro and Carlos Matsuo shot what’s the most obscure number of the project so far. Or what the what the color palette and time of shooting would make you believe. While all the previous episodes carried a somber element to them, seeing Ulises Zarazua tune his guitar as he walks by a man that’s digging through trash, underlines the series’ thematic alignment between artists and the common pedestrians. A lovely little wink at the sixth second makes us remember the previous episode featuring Los Nuevos Maevans. As he parks on a corner to bleed his heart out, it’s quite moving to see the lights of cars and a scattered companionship of life passing by, even when the sun has yet to manifest its presence.

Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)