Showing posts with label de janeiros. Show all posts
Showing posts with label de janeiros. Show all posts
Video: De Janeiros - "Sambódromo"
Video: Nueva Orleáns feat. Fakuta - “Música y Discos”
The always reliable Super45 has the scoop on the new video hailing from Chile's awesome Michita Rex collective. “Música y Discos” is a subliminal song by Nueva Orleans, the closing piece in Michita Rex Vol.1, the netlabel's first release. Nueva Orleáns is one of the several projects of Milton Mahan, half of the "immediate good times techno" duo De Janeiros. The song features vocal collaboration from Fakuta, who we have yet to 'introduce' officially but if you've downloaded Fonogramaticos Vol.7, you would agree "Armar y Desarmar" is one of the volume's peaks. But back to the video, let's say it is as disturbing as it is worthy to watch. And the song? Simply stunning.
Video: De Janeiros - "Montreal"
Chile’s Michitarex has barely two releases out and they’re already becoming one of our favorite Netlabels. With the subtitle ‘Musica para el fin del mundo”, we must say they’re as fresh as it can get. Chile’s recent devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake has obviously postponed a lot of music projects, but it’s wonderful to see music’s strength heal some of the pain at least by means of distraction. De Janeiro’s Plateado is Michitarex’s first official artist-release, which opens wonderfully with “Montreal”, the album’s best track and its first single. The video is stunning, post-industrial bravura with chromatic effects. Andrew Casillas highlights the song’s “swirling keyboards and sound effects, and fire alarm-level of urgency”, the video helmed by Rosario Gonzalez parallels that sonic rush pigmentation.
Plateado, De Janeiros
Plateado, De Janeiros Michita Rex, Chile
Rating: 69
by Andrew Casillas
So it’s come to this: I am Club Fonograma’s de facto electronic music writer. So to all of you Beatz-headz out there, I apologize for whatever asinine comparisons I’ll end up writing in this and future reviews. Moving on to new business, we have this release from Chilean troupe De Janeiros. To be honest, this was a bit of a difficult album to review. It’s unquestionably good, though never great; mostly because it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s good about it.
To elaborate: everything about Plateado, from its track titles, to its cover image, to its (seemingly) deliberate track sequencing, seems to revolve around seeing existence through the “bigger picture.” Thus, the album begins at its most immediate before drifting off into subtle, texterous techno pictures. This keeps the music interesting, even at its most unpalatable, but said music never forms a definite shape that you can latch onto to understand why certain sounds are being made or not being made. Thus, the frustration and the lack of understanding.
As stated above, Plateado begins with its most immediate tracks. The opener, “Montreal,” is undoubtedly the album’s greatest peak, with its swirling keyboards and sound effects, and fire alarm-level of urgency; this is a work that could have easily slotted onto Four Tet’s Ringer EP. From here, we get the white noise-laden “Los Caribes,” which veers very close to the line of “formulaic, lumpy big beat” but contains enough happy surprises (and wind instruments!) to make things interesting and enjoyable. From here, the album takes a drastic turn in tone, becoming starry-eyed and contemplative. “Senderos Hacia Planetas Habitables,” aside from having a pretty awesome title for a high school Spanish writing assignment, is wrought with the sort of cinematic expressionism that acts like Pantha du Prince have made en vogue recently. Had the album continued to progress into this sort of expansion-fueled minutia, it may have made for a more compelling listen. What follows on the rest of Plateado are chunky, formless tracks that sound like the interstitial music for a bad science-fiction program. Hell, hearing the title track ALONE makes me wonder about Scott Bakula’s character ever made it back home on Quantum Leap.
This isn’t meant to be a complete slam on De Janeiros, who are obviously capable of making the sort of immediate “good times techno” that even the most casual of listeners would love. Their ambition is duly noted and admirable, but if I could make one suggestion, please cut down on the sci-fi sound effects, and embrace silence. Just like I do when my techno reviews get too long.
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