El Guincho - HiperAsia

HiperAsia, El Guincho
Canada/Nacional Records, Spain
Rating: 80
by Zé Garcia



If you’re not seeing the entertainment purpose of HiperAsia you might just legit be lacking the proper gear. Dollar store headphones wont give it to you. Smartphone speakers are never in etiquette for a proper musical experience. Not one for product placement, but the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with HiperAsia have been on my Harman Kardons. Bass is key on HiperAsia, as is the capacity to fully capture El Guincho's polychromatic, schizophrenic pallet. Schizophrenic is ascribed here not in a clinical sense but in the album's fantastic fragmentation. HiperAsia is a hybrid: contradictory & visceral, conflictual & mechanic sonics constantly interrupting developing ideas & melodies. For immediate reference see the gratifying “Stena Drillmax” (breakdancers required for its 90s breakbeat leaning second half). It is followed by the banging (yet brief) “Abdi” (where El Guincho talks about feeling dead inside a bank listening to hardcore) and its continuation: the irresistible ("hey!") “Muchos Boys” which flirts with dancehall before its sonic boom apex. In fact, much of HiperAsia's bass laden eccentricities seem indebted to 21st Century dancehall.

HiperAsia is full of methylphenidate bangers with some minor miscalculations in its built-in hardware. The title track seems like the album’s least essential track, but rewards repeated listens. All of HiperAsia demands (& rewards) repeated listens, if you're into such thrills. And "Pelo Rapado” waxes where “HiperAsia” wanes. On “Pelo Rapado,” El Guincho also postures as a trans-human R&B icon: you can almost picture him lifting his Black leather jacket (onstage) to reveal his abs to a screaming pack of aroused die hards. “Mis Hits” is just as romantic and seductive. Picture Ciara doing her “Ride” routine. Superficially, much of HiperAsia seems cold and disjointed but, "Parte Virtual" is somehow balmy as is the vaporwave breeze of "Pizza." While "Pizza" concerns itself with the modern food staple, the winning "Parte Virtual" provides some particularly downcast (& personally relevant) revelations: "Son muy pocos los que no me fallan / esperaré a ver qué hacen cuando la tormenta pase."

"De Bugas" proves El Guincho is still harnessing the energy of the sun, even if it is 20,016 and he is channeling its power with solar panels. In recent memory Club Fonograma has systematized classifications of the current reggaetón landscape: future and ice age. "De Bugas" is rooted somewhere between bazaar dancehall and future reggaetón, with Shibuya-kei (as the connoisseur Giovanni Guillén points out) overtones. Easily the catchiest track on HiperAsia, "Cómix" is made complete with an appearance by the ever congenial Mala Rodríguez ("si no hay na' pa' cenar me da igual, te tengo a ti y a mi verdad / aunque sea sin pastillas yo quiero ir a bailar") and El Guincho's cheeky yet alluring self assurance: "Siempre me largo con la guapa de la fiesta [...] sé que te molesta ver como no me cuesta."

Sizable portions of HiperAsia seem spontaneous: El Guincho operating on automatic, crafting efficient (if incongruous) electronica indebted to yet another musical form of the African diaspora: R&B (however disfigured). Early releases like the sensuous "Mis Hits" and the autotune heavy "Rotu Seco" proved unmoving to most of Club Fonograma at first. Autotune can often be described as excessive but "Roto Seco" employs it as an integral aspect of its DNA. Remember when El Guincho drew comparisons to Animal Collective? Closing number “Zona Wifi” (subwoofer mandatory) recalls AnCo's energy. But whereas the glory of Animal Collective continues to fade, El Guincho continues to reinvent his brand towards favorable results.

Video: El Guincho (feat. La Mala Rodríguez) - "Cómix"

El Guincho's comeback has proved just as confounding as early singles "Mis Hits" and "Roto Socu" hinted it would be. Early listens of Hiperasia reveal a kinetic, tantalizing and, indeed, hyper album that rejects the notion of a finished pop product. A move one could appropriately link with Pablo Diaz-Reixa’s intentions to capture the energy of Chinese bazaars in Madrid. But Hiperasia isn’t merely an attempt at culture shock. El Guincho actually sounds like he’s having fun with it.

In “Cómix,” the Spanish producer introduces his “Chef P” moniker and struts along to bars more Shibuya-kei than Straight Outta anywhere. Is this confidence earned? Maybe not at first. The fast food beats need a minute to dig up some substance, which unveils itself through hypnotic bursts. By the third or fourth “BUENA,” we really can’t help falling for it. Elsewhere a revitalized Mala Rodríguez pops up and barely flinches, securing the tone needed for Chef P’s closing lines: “Sé que te molesta ver / como no me cuesta / Chef P / Ch Ch Chef P / solo come Cómix.” Translation: stay mad.

Watch the CANADA-directed video above. Hiperasia arrives digitally February 12 followed by a March 11 physical release.

Extraperlo - Delirio Específico

Delirio Específico, Extraperlo
Canada, Spain
Rating: 84
by Pierre Lestruhaut

The main story arc surrounding Extraperlo’s new record is that after breakthrough album Desayuno Continental, as the band was put on halt while each member went its own separate way to work on different projects (Borja Rosal as guitar player for El Guincho, and Alba Blasi as half of Granit were quick to spring), it also gave them the opportunity to mature and evolve as musicians individually. Added to the fact they’ve now teamed up with Pablo Díaz-Reixa as producer for their latest record Delirio Específico, it seems to explain why the most ear-catching divergence from their previous release is just how much cleaner the whole thing sounds. By association, words like accessibility and polishedness start to pop out, meaning that the framework for Deliro Específico is inherently poppier, relatable, and communal. The equivalent of evolving from warm art house films into lush technicolor sagas.

Working with highly influential musician-turned-producer-du-jour El Guincho, and releasing the record through new home of the cool label Canada after abandoning previous home of the cool Mushroom Pillow, the changes in entourage feel as though they’re simultaneously trying to safely ride the trendiness train, while also aligning themselves with a certain scene and aesthetic that carries a whole ethos of its own. First single “Ardiente Figura” shines not only as one of the best pop songs to come out of Spain this year, but as a relentless fluttering of post-punk, tropicalia, dub, and afrobeat influences consolidated into a riff that shudders your every bone, a hook that pervades your brain, and a bridge that melts your heart. All of this done with admirable restraint, and an impressive congealing of their influences into convincingly original melodies and arrangements.

But for a band that shows such restraint in their performance, the themes throughout the album appear to be rampant with luxuriousness. One could quickly shelve their lyrics as straight-out pop idioms, yet with repeated listens they seem to offer some vivid imagery that’s possibly related to fiery sexuality (“Ardiente Figura” and “A Nivel Carnal”), and seaside rapture (“Las Corrientes del Golfo” and “Viaje a Brasil”). Borja Rosal has allegedly succeeded at his conscious attempt to sound a lot less like Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins, though when his roaring voice gets paired with new-wavey staccato riffage (such as in “Las Corrientes de Golfo”) the Soda Stereo extrapolation CF’s own Gio Guillén mentioned does start to feel a bit inevitable to point at. Alba Blasi’s occasional appearances though, show off a tonal counterpoint that adds considerable breadth to Extraperlo’s palette, a band that here pulls together such elegance and energy from the most disparate of sounds.

Leaving barely any silences between tracks does nothing but reinforce the contrast in cohesiveness between their debut and sophomore records, which points out to the fact that Delirio Específico can be misinterpreted as the effort of a band still working to find their ground and tailoring what’s coming closer to be their dreamed-about sound. But perhaps that’s the whole point of Extraperlo. In an interview for PlayGround, when asked about the possibility of dropping an eventual third record, Borja Rosal stated they would need to find ways to do things differently, in order to keep the creative spirit alive. It’s their own nonconformity that truly defines Extraperlo. And in Delirio Específico, as a band that’s still experimenting with expanding their own palette, they’ve succeeded at admirably looking for new ways to conjure leisure-evoking melodical opulence, afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, and 80’s pad beats into truly stuttering internet-era pop songs.

Los Punsetes - Una montaña es una montaña

Una montaña es una montaña, Los Punsetes
Everlasting Records, Spain
Rating: 80
by Pierre Lestruhaut

If you happen to be very familiar with the bands that this blog has tended to laud over the past few years, then chances are you already have a pretty decent understanding of what made Los Punsetes’ excellent one-two punch of oddball indie rock that were LP and LP2. If you’re not, and hopefully haven’t been living under a rock, then at least maybe you've heard about a certain lowbrow song with an opening lyric that goes something like “Que le den por culo a tus amigos,” which, for better or worse, continues to be both the main reference and entrance point into the Madrilenian quintet’s discography as it moves towards their third LP Una montaña es una montaña.

For better, “Tus Amigos” still remains the most effective incarnation of what has made Los Punsetes such a fun band to listen to: crudely humorous and nihilistic me-against-the-world lyrics, the sister-in-the-shower singing/yelling style of Ariadna, and a muscled backing band comprising a pair of great interweaving guitars and a tight rhythm section. But for worse, it often seems to reduce the whole extension of the band's framework to a single line (albeit a piercingly good one), thus failing to represent them as the glaring antithesis to the more common self-conscious and hyper-referential record collector rock that seems to attracts the attention of most indie fans—sitting oppositely from Piyama Party’s indie fan witticism while somehow standing on the same funny-as-shit indie rock sidewalk.

“Alférez Provisional,” first single from Una montaña es una montaña, seemed like the sort of safe roundup to follow the tour de force that was LP2: sticking to the more conspicuous elements of your aesthetic that have been key to your success (Planetas and Movida Madrileña-infused sounds with a heavy dose of FUCK EVERYONE), while bringing along a couple of recent local powerhouses (Pablo Díaz-Reixa as producer, CANADA as video directors). For most of the record, though, instead of the in-studio friction between band members portrayed in the video for “Alférez Provisional,” Los Punsetes seem to have settled for finding a comfortable groove. Lyrical repetition and steady progressions to the point of utter stagnation (“Un corte limpio,” “Malas tierras”), breathing from an absence of easily digestible melodies and occasionally diverging towards rockist grandeur (epic keyboard-led outro in “Malas Tierras,” apocalyptical contemplation in “Los glaciares”).

As opposed to what we were used to in LP and LP2, Los Punsetes seem decided to progress within the confines of well executed clean guitar rock more often than making us feel uncomfortably delighted with their enfant-terrible approach. The latter is obviously the kind of aesthetic that led to all kinds of knee-jerk reactions about the band being simultaneously unique, refreshing, lowbrow and provocative. But the former, even though it has made them overall less interesting and certainly a lot less fun to listen to, is the forthcoming breeze of a band that’s entering maturity. In “John Cage,” Ariadna sings with nihilistic apathy (“Noy hay mejor propósito que no tener ningún propósito”), about a certain acceptance for the certainties of life (“Un hombre es un hombre y una montaña es una montaña"), which makes for a closing number that leaves us to face the fact that every enfant-terrible must inevitably enter adulthood at some point.

El Guincho feat. Javiera Mena - "Novias"

During the weekend, our inbox flooded with emails from readers asking about an out-of-nowhere collaboration between house favorites El Guincho and Javiera Mena. Apparently the track received a quiet run on Mexican FM airplay last week. The pairing of these pop virtuosos shouted historic (both artists have had #1 albums with us) and, although we were hoping for a new track made from scratch (to prevent all aural and sentimental attachment), this is still material worthy of some excitement. This collaboration comes just in time for Mena's planned U.S. tour and El Guincho's current visit across Latin America. Well, to be fair, we could hardly call this a collaboration because its tags should read more on the lines of, "the Javiera Mena Remix."

This new edit of Pop Negro’s catchy as hell “Novias” (premiered by Spain’s Esta Pasando!) is a bit misplaced: it's spotty in its production, conservative on every turn (for a rework), and perhaps even unnecessary. But it does push the right buttons when expanding its percussion lines into an interestingly dense, boy meets girl narrative. The jumpy, almost uncomfortable vocals by Mena make this version seem more like a b-side out of Piratas de Sudamerica than something from the almost flamboyant Pop Negro. Yes, this is forgettable and middling at best, considering we're talking about indie royalty, but El Guincho doesn’t collaborate too often, and we’re glad he’s chosen ladies like Julieta Venegas (“Mientes”) and Javiera Mena for his intercontinental affairs.

El Guincho - FACT Mix 187

We’re still very proud of having one of El Guincho’s 10 hand-made (customed by Pablo Diaz-Reixa himself) tapes for Gorilla vs. Bear’s ‘Gorila Contra Bear Mixtape’, which featured artists from around the world that have inspired him. This time, he made a stunning and revealing mix for FACT Magazine. FACT 187 collects his Iberoamerican influences that go from Ruben Blades to Los Bukis. Click over to FACT for the tracklist.

Earlier this year the Barcelona-based Guinch released the first instalment in his limited edition Piratas de Sudamérica EP series. Recorded at home with deliberately low frequency response then bounced down to the tape, the EP consisted of covers and rearrangements of South American standards and lost classics. This spirit of discovery informs his totally unique FACT mix, wherein he finds incredible, often unlikely psychedelic resonances in traditional music and pop from the Spanish-speaking world, elegantly editing tracks by the likes of Javier Solis, Rolando Laserie and Gloria Lasso into a hypnotic and righteous flow. We also reckon this is the first and last time you’ll hear a Julio Iglesias track on a FACT mix.

♫♫♫ Fact Mix 187: El Guincho

Video: El Guincho - "Bombay"

(NSFW, y'all.)

If the intro to this video looks and sounds familiar, it’s because you are a huge nerd and saw the Carl Sagan PBS series Cosmos back in the day. In that series, Sagan contemplates the universe and the place that we occupy in it, just as El Guincho, who would actually make a great educational series narrator, does at the beginning of this video for “Bombay,” which is also the trailer for Nicolas Mendez’s film by the same name. We don’t really know much about that film, but if we can climb into a cosmos exploration vehicle and, by catapulting a tape into the air, be transported into a world as bizarrely beautiful as the one in this video, then we want to go to there.

El Guincho - Pop Negro

Pop Negro, El Guincho
Young Turks, Spain
Rating: 85 ★★★★
by Blanca Méndez

One of Coco Chanel’s most well known pieces of sartorial advice was “when accessorizing, always take off the last thing you put on.” And, while Chanel was one classy lady, and her aesthetic an impeccably refined one, I am firmly in the more is more camp. I am that friend that, even when already wearing a gold Picasso jacket (yes, I actually own one) and gargantuan amber ring (yep, have one of those, too) will ask if you have more gold necklaces to layer around my already weighted neck. I will always take opulence over simplicity, and I thought El Guincho was a kindred spirit, at least in his musical sensibility. But with his latest, Pop Negro, it seems that our favorite Canary Islander has taken Chanel’s advice and opted for a more polished production. Unlike the wonderful chaos of the decadently thick layers of Alegranza! that was more Anna Sui than Chanel, we get a cleaner, more organized sound with Pop Negro, making it his most accessible work to date.

First single, and album opener, “Bombay” sets the stage for this change of pace with a sound more subdued than what we’ve become accustomed to. The smooth oohs give the track a warm doo-wop feel, while the lyrics and keyboards give the whole song a pleasant underlying melancholy, best encompassed in the latter half of the song in which El Guincho sings, “Solo yo te pido que te quedes en donde puedas alcanzar lo que quieras conseguir. Y en cambio tu me pides que me quede donde puedas vigilarme hasta que te canses de buscar.” In your wardrobe, “Bombay” would be a long-sleeved mini-dress. “Novias” is more like the resort wear collection. It’s probably a swimsuit or brightly colored maxi dress. The cuckoo clock chirps in the background of most of the song would have been incredibly irritating under any other circumstances, but here it merely adds to the song’s child-like, light-hearted feel and is a testament to El Guincho’s impressive ability to layer sound and percussion in surprisingly pleasing ways. The man knows what he’s doing. He’s also great at making repetition not only interesting, but an integral part of the music.

In “Ghetto Facil,” which starts with the repetition of enigmatic line “caballo negro en tu cara,” the most powerful part of the song is the declaration “eres mi chica de oro con tus labios de oro que iluminan todo.” And while this is not one of the repeated elements, I could listen to that line over and over without growing tired of it. The most effective use of lyrical repetition, however, is without a doubt, “eres un ladron en mi habitacion” in “Soca del Eclipse,” the funkiest and darkest song on the album. It would be the leather jacket or pair of stiletto boots in your wardrobe. “FM Tan Sexy” is obviously the LBD. Near the end of the album, we get a taste of the chaos of yore, with “(Chica-Oh) Drims.” The endearingly clumsy and awkward song is like an Arrested Development-era Michael Cera before he became a cliche. Or maybe more like Sam Weir in Freaks and Geeks. Either way, it’s not quite enough to satiate my thirst for cacophany.

While the album was evidently meant to be more put together, and it succeeded in that mission, my main issue with it was its lack of narrative. It’s trajectory was a very straight, marked path that, despite having a clear route, didn’t seem to have any particular destination. In this, Pop Negro failed where Alegranza! and the more recent first volume of Piratas de Sudamerica (which I would have liked more time with before the release of a new album), succeeded. Even though Pop Negro is not the sartorial equivalent of a multi-colored, multi-textured, heavily accessorized Claudia Kishi or Clarissa Darling wardrobe that I had hoped for, it is still a masterful work of psychedelic pop in that it manages to remain clean and sleek even with all the layers of percussion. It’s an exercise in restraint that would make Coco Chanel proud.

MP3: El Guincho - "FM Tan Sexy"

Just in time to qualify as a welcome end-of-the-week treat, Beggars has made the latest sneak-peek of the new El Guincho LP available for free download. The track, "FM Tan Sexy," is certainly the most-obviously funky track that El Guincho has ever released, and seems to signify his shift away from Aleganza! and its indulgence of cacophony. It's busier than "Bombay," but it's arguably better, and sounds great as the sun outside begins to melt that sandwich that you forgot to take back inside when you went out to lunch (better hurry before the mayonnaise begins to turn).

♫♫♫ "FM Tan Sexy"

MySpace

New El Guincho Song "FM Tan Sexy"

Jenesaispop has the scoop on a new song by El Guincho, to be included on his sophomore LP Pop Negro. We feel his last release Piratas de Sudamerica has not been properly taken care of, it’s extremely good and there’s barely any attention to it anymore, but then of course, this is one of those blogs that would actually appreciate the songs’ recreations. But we’re always hungry for more El Guincho, and this new cut titled “FM tan Sexy” definitely keeps the excitement alive. Pablo’s cousins want to show you how they enjoy Pop Negro, introducing this hot-off-the-wall and very sweaty track in a very eye-pleasing video. Both upfront songs have been a revelation, “Bombay” did it through its lyrics, and this new cut does it with the actual sound CREATION. Pop Negro will be out next month through YoungTurks/Beggars.

MP3: El Guincho - "Bombay"

Here is another song many of you probably already have, but it's so good we can’t let it pass by. El Guincho got many of us confused as he overlaid the promotion of his stellar Piratas de Sudamerica EP with a totally brand new single, “Bombay”, first cut from his anticipated sophomore LP Pop Negro. This has to be one of Pablo’s most accessible songs to date, or at least very close to that amazing collaboration with Julieta Venegas in “Mientes.” In sound and its structure, “Bombay” is very close to that sun-splash pop of fellow Spanish band Delorean. The production work here is phenomenal as the tropical song blends into an R&B tune exported from some deserted island. While it’s no secret he has embraced Latin America through his music since his beginnings, this latest stuff is ready for Latin Music archive.

♫♫♫ "Bombay"

Summer Jamz 2010 - Let Me Put My Rhythm In You [UPDATED LINK]

It's that time of year. Summertime. Not just the time of year when the sun begins to make you hallucinate so badly that you begin running after a paleta that's JUST OUT OF REACH. No, it's SUMMER JAMZ SEASON! The "Summer Jamz" series started out at wonderful Stylus Magazine, where the staff would create customized mixtapes based on a general mood, theme, or meditation influenced by the season. And even though Stylus lies in the internet graveyard, many of its writers still continue the "Summer Jamz" tradition through the website The Passion of the Weiss, which is run by the world's greatest hip-hop writer (and former Stylus alum) Jeff Weiss. This year's other Summer Jamz have been running on that site throughout the summer, and will continue for the next few weeks, and I'd highly recommend checking some of them out.

However, I'm here to post the entry compiled by me and Jeff Siegel, another Stylus ex-pat who's an overall brilliant and talented man. He's also responsible for that funky bit of cover art above. Our general theme was "hypnotic and lazy," and I hope we've delivered. The link and tracklist are below (with many of your Club Fonograma faves!). Please, pick your feet up and enjoy this sweet, sweet digibrilliance.

Link: Let Me Put My Rhythm In You [updated link!]

Disc One*
1) Cluster & Eno - "Schöne Hände"
2) Café Tacuba - "13"
3) Memory Cassette - "Surfin'"
4) Los Espíritus - "Pacifico-Atlantico"
5) Mark E - "Smiling"
6) A Tribe Called Quest - "Electric Relaxation"
7) Emilio José - "Rio Grande do Sul"
8) Hoahio - "Jellyfish"
9) Pérez Prado & His Orchestra - "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom"
10) El Guincho ft. Julieta Venegas - "Mientes"
11) Horace Andy - "Money Money"
12) Loop - "Mother Sky"
13) Andrew Paine - "The Radioactive Cat"

Disc Two*
1) Los Amparito - "Los Miradas de Magaly"
2) Fantastic Mr. Fox - "Bricka-Brac"
3) Actress - "Hubble"
4) Glissandro 70 - "Bolan Muppets"
5) Prissa - "Lógica"
6) Joyce w/ Nana Vasconcelos & Mauricio Maestro - "Metralhadeira"
7) The Meters - "Cissy Strut"
8) Natalia Lafourcade & Emanuel Del Real - "Diente Blanco, No Te Vayas"
9) Four Tet & Rothko - "Rivers Become Oceans"
10) Illum Sphere - "Psycho"
11) Madame Mboty Mamy & dit Mama Tsara - "Maman Ny'Lisa"
12) Juana Molina - "El Perro"
13) James Ferraro - "Blacktop Tumble Weed"
14) Santo & Johnny - "Sleep Walk"

* This mixtape isn't really two separate folders. I just like to conceptualize it that way.

Piratas de Sudamérica Vol. 1, El Guincho

Piratas de Sudamérica Vol. 1, El Guincho

Young Turks, Spain

Rating: 89

By Andrew Casillas

A few Christmases ago, I unearthed my old Super Nintendo from my family closet. Seeing as I had nothing to do, and I really wanted to see if my Madden ‘94 skills were as great as I remembered (they weren’t), I plugged the system in and played virtually every game that I had held onto for an entire week or so. Aside from the obvious shock factor at how much gameplay has progressed over almost two decades, I began to reflect on my feelings on these quaint, socially ancient artifacts, and how much more amazing they seemed in their intangible state. To put it another way: NBA Jam is much more awesome in one’s memories than in the modern world.

This sense of embellishment of one’s past experiences afflicts us all on an almost a daily basis; and the feeling only becomes more palpable when there’s a physical embodiment or property that has no greater value than to bring back those memories. In the world of music, a common scenario would be when you discuss pop songs that were popular when you were in grade school with friends of a similar age. To you, “Pelo Suelto,” “Motownphilly,” or “MMMBop,” (depending on your age, of course) were the “jam,” and you still love those songs today. And that’s not to say that said songs are awful per se, but whenever you hear them outside of the “I haven’t heard this song in forever!” context, you realize that your love of them may be more than a little exaggerated.

This is what makes the first volume of El Guincho’s Piratas de Sudamérica so special and, indeed, El Guincho himself so special. He trades in this exact sort of “exaggerated perception,” and also plays towards the audience’s natural slant by bolstering these feelings until the embellishment seems completely natural and at a fixed point. Take “Palmitos Park,” Alegranza!’s opening track (and Club Fonograma’s #1 song of 2008): from its opening vocal sample to its reoccurring applause track to its cooing background harmonies, it’s obviously meant to evoke some sort of hip, late-night, booze-flowing, white suit optional, speakeasy. So rather than just engage toward the audience’s natural expectation, he smothers the samples in a wash of rhythmic drum work, conflicting percussion, and half-chanted vocals. All of a sudden, the song doesn’t sound like something that reminds you of that one time you went to the coolest basement bar in the biggest city you’ve ever gotten drunk in—it sounds EXACTLY like that time, and just as bad ass as you remembered it the first time. Alegranza! has a few more moments like this, the most notable being the beach party caprice of “Kalise.” But, for the most part, El Guincho was working with exclusively personal moods—you had to be there in the first place in order to grasp the feeling.

Of course, it didn’t help that that debut album was stacked with cacophonous sampling and instrumentation—you couldn’t exactly be blamed for not loving every song on it, especially if you aren’t the type of person who salivates over Animal Collective leaks. But on Piratas de Sudamérica, El Guincho trades the disparate sound collages for “straightforward” (by his standards) covers of the Cuban and South American songbooks. And it’s fantastic.

Operating within this “exaggerated perception” method, El Guincho makes you feel that you know just as much about these songs as he does, even if you’ve never heard the originals before (and if you haven’t, you should). Take the opener (and lead single), “Hindou,” a classic from Cuban pianist Armando Orefiche, which El Guincho re-imagines as a soulful lament. With guitars seemingly lifted straight from Santo & Johnny’s rock-n-roll classic “Sleepwalk” and steel drums that could melt your heart, this is exactly what you would expect to pass for a slow jam in 1950’s Havana. Does anyone reading this know that? Not a chance (and if you do, congratulations on the great eyesight in your old age). But that embodies what El Guincho does so successfully with this concept. You know these are new covers of dusty, old pop songs, but you don’t even think about the “newness” of it—as far as you’re concerned, this is the real deal; this is what music sounded like back then. You’re being transported to a time that you weren’t around for, but everything still sounds familiar and right.

Even if you take this “exaggerated perception” thing with a huge grain of salt, there’s still plenty to enjoy at face value. From the everything-but-the-maracas baile thump of “Cuerpo Sin Alma” to the cumbia-bordering “Frutas del Caney,” there’s plenty here that’ll sound right at home soundtracking those hot summer days. And I certainly cannot leave out the album’s centerpiece, the Julieta Venegas-assisted “Mientes.” In short: this track is a stone cold masterpiece. A finely-tuned, insistent, pungent piece of music. There isn’t a wasted second of tape spared throughout the entire thing. Where the original Los Trio Matamoros cut was a breezy, nice little tune, this version sounds like its being broadcasted from some far away period in time and space, where boys and girls only speak to each other with a cadence reserved for the finest screwball comedies. And we haven’t even begun to mention the beat’s spry little rhythm, which clicks and flounces all the way into your cranium.

In all honesty, the only thing that keeps this thing from higher marks is its anticlimactic (but by no means awful) final track, and its short length (it is an EP after all). But as the tally stands, El Guincho has delivered on his debut’s substantial promise, expanded his sound, and established a greater foundation of personality all within this 5-song salvo. Hopefully, the rest of his Piratas series will hold serve, but at the least, he’s given us a lot to enjoy, absorb, and remember.

LAMC Entry #1: Go ahead and enjoy each other!

New York City is like one giant oven right now. Seriously, I could bake bread out here (the vegan kind, of course). The east coast heat wave may be due to science, or whatever, but I’m going to go ahead and say it’s because of the Latin Alternative Music Conference. I arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel Wednesday afternoon to pick up my badge, and there were LAMC posters everywhere. The masked wrestler was amusingly out of place inthe midst of the hotel décor, and the entire mezzanine level was crawling with Carlos’ brethren (the hipster cholos).

With the badge around my neck and swag bag on my shoulder, I headed down to the hotel bar, where folks were gathered to watch the Spain vs. Germany game. This turned out to be a wise decision because, however begrudgingly I now support Spain, they played a beautiful game and the folks in the bar were giddy about the win.

Later in the evening, I headed over to Central Park and met up with my photographer, JP, to see Ana Tijoux, El Guincho, and Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible on the SummerStage. Unfortunately, the show’s early start time meant the crowd was sparse at first. Ana Tijoux still killed it and was a total sweetheart about it – an admirable skill. “Sube” was a crowd-pleaser, as was “1977,” for which Tijoux invited two Brazilian percussionist friends on stage to jam with her. Then El Guincho got everyone in the summer spirit, not that we really needed it in the 100 degree weather. He played the hits in his short shorts (bless those Europeans) and at one point, he and his band got really (like, really) into the music. Afterwards El Guincho apologized saying that it had been a while since they had played together and they were just enjoying each other. To which I said, go ahead and enjoy each other!

Then nightfall came, things cooled down, and Nortec Collective began setting up. As soon as I saw their robot computer control center, I knew it was going to be good because how can anything involving a robot computer control center not be good? Dudes were playing iPads all nonchalant-like! The band’s energy was amazing and infectious and soon there was an all out dance party in Central Park.

Photos by JP Abello

After that amazing set, I rushed over to Mercury Lounge to catch the second half of the indie showcase. When I got there, Furland was setting up. I think this is the part where I reveal my fangirldom. Everything I say from here on out concerning Furland will be dripping with praise, so bear with me. They just played such a great show! And little Sergio was so I-just-want-to-pinch-your-cheeks adorable. I felt like a proud mama. San Pascualito Rey followed with a crowd-energizing set of what I’m going to call dad rock, and Chico Mann closed the night with a stirring set of Afro Cuban electronic jams that I wish more folks had stuck around for because the band is bringing some fresh sounds to the scene. But I guess it was a weeknight and people have to work in the morning, or whatever. Also, you should all be very proud of me because I managed to navigate the city all day without getting lost once. Success!

Video: El Guincho - "Hindou"

This video is what would have happened if Max from Where the Wild Things Are had gone on a tropical adventure as a pirate instead of to that weird and kind of scary imagination jungle in a wolf suit. It is also way less depressing than the Spike Jonze movie, which makes it a winner in my book. Playing the xylophone with a pirate hook (next big music trend?) sounds far more appealing than crawling into the mouth of a jungle creature, am I right? The island vacation vibe of the song is a perfect accompaniment to the rowing and exploring in the video. And the part where the duck’s feather ruffle matches up perfectly with the percussion? Pure genius.

El Guincho’s Piratas de Sudamérica EP, out July 13, will soundtrack your summer, and you won't even have time to go through withdrawal because his second album, Pop Negro, is due in the fall.

Video + MP3: Los Massieras - "Boogity Boogity Boogity"

We might have found Thelematicos’ debut alienating and underwhelming, but we pretty much love the rest of the Discoteca Oceano catalogue, including Los Massieras, even if there’s so little material from them to really judge. They have released a 12-inch sampler titled Bananamania, one that has caught the attention of media all around, including privileged attention from Pitchfork and The Fader. Their single “Boogity Boogity Boogity” has put them on the map with a refreshing dance jam; it’s a celebration from beginning to end and an exemplary tune on wax-cleaning spirit. Pitchfork has premiered a fantastic video directed by Gerson Aguerri, who also directed El Guincho’s colorful “Palmitos Park.” Grab the MP3 via The Fader.

♫♫♫ "Boogity Boogity Boogity"

LAMC 2010 Lineup

This has to be one of the hottest lineups in the 11 editions of the Latin Alternative Music Conference, aka the Latin-Alt event of the year. No festival brings as much attention from major media and no one brings as many fans. In fact, in the past two years since our blog has been around, we see our site traffic sky-rocket during the weeks around the conference (including our link on the New York Times), we seem to be a good source for many of the up and coming bands in the showcase. This year is particularly exciting as New York will welcome some truly exciting bands like El Guincho, Toy Selectah, Los Punsetes, Furland , Los Rakas and La Bien Querida.

Last year your CF editor did a piece for the LAMC guidebook on our favorite blogs out there, this year, I’m back with another piece on the 12 Twitter profiles any Latin Alternative fan should be following. Make sure to grab a book and as always, look around for the LAMC’s awesome compilation discs, they’re always fun. Act smart and take advantage of the $99 registration fee, register here.

Artists performing at LAMC 2010:
Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible, El Guincho, Anita Tijoux, Los Punsetes, Maleco Collective, Ocote Soul Sounds, Chico Mann, Furland, San Pascualito Rey, Sol Okarina, Alex Cuba, La Bien Querida, The Pinker Tones, Locos Por Juana, Jumbo, Los Tres, Pacha Massive, King Chango, Moderatto, Los Rakas, Mexican Institute of Sound, Yotuel, Isa GT, Ozomatli, Fidel Nadal, Maldita Vecindad, Profetas.

El Guincho @ The Natural History Museum

Found this great video of El Guincho performing "Palmitos Park" live at 'The Rainforest' @ The Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. The guy is pure magic here, striking even vocally. Also, great support by Aleix Clavera from Extraperlo. There's virtually no details on his new album, but it should be out by the fall through Discoteca Oceano in Spain and Matador Records in the States. "Que solo significa sin nadie alrededor."

El Guincho Remixes Los Punsetes "Tus Amigos"

Starting out the day with a nice remix for “Tus Amigos” by Los Punsetes, remixed by Fonograma favorite El Guincho. The original song (which you can find on Fonogramaticos Vol.7) is a blast and one of those songs that look almost impossible to mess with, but Pablo- Diaz Reixa surrounds it with some tribal weekend-ready edges. Honestly, we’re not going crazy for it, but it works as a nice exercise (and is more than welcomed as we approach the summer). Hidrogenesse will be dropping another remix for the song really soon.

Antillas EP, El Guincho

ANTILLAS EP, EL GUINCHO
Young Turks, Spain
Rating: 69
By Carlos Reyes

Beggars Group (XL, Young Turks) has released an EP for “Antillas”, an extracted piece from my favorite record of 2008, El Guincho’s Alegranza! This is the second track to get its own release; “Palmitos Park” got its own 7'' vinyl, along with a bonus cover track by The Ruby Suns. El Guincho’s sophomore album is said to be out by the end of this year, no ‘indie’ artist from our region had ever gathered so much attention by music blogs across the web (Pitchfork and its aficionados, including us), he must be feeling some pressure. While that’s on the oven, this Antillas EP is not a bad idea, nothing to die for, but it serves as a nice complementary collection of remixes by several hot remixers.

“Antillas” is not only one of El Guincho’s catchiest tunes; it’s one of his few songs that are lyrically-guided on its structure. Sure a lot of its direction is carried by its surf-like tribal manner, but they’re only obeying the roundness of its lyrics. “A bailar venimos a bailar, venimos al compas y a aguantar el compas y si lo aguantas tu me podras compensar con tu danza sin par…” I suspect most people have taken the song’s vocal layer as a rhythmic tool when it is the heart of its greatness. It’s the tale of a great luminous dancer, the sun and the Caribbean archipelago. The attached sound is brutally repetitious but only to rope the mystical and sunny words; “yo se que tienes luz, no se puede apagar, abrigame en tu sol…”, everything flows without falling into rhyme subversives (the music pattern does that).

Awesome track, but how about the remixes? They are the whole reason to have a proper release in the first place. Well, turns out there are two ‘versions’ of this EP; a not so stimulating Electro-European 4-piece set, and a less strained, more ‘Latino’ 5-piece set. I didn’t care much about the former, but the latter does include memorable takes that can go beyond DJ sets and into personal iPods. Brooklyn’s xxxchange delivers a hazardous simplification of the song, and he pulls it off for the most part. Cee El Haca’s low-rider striking mix is way too timid to stand out. Cumbia’s well known party house Bersa Discos dresses “Antillas” as an infectious cumbia. The closing remix is done by Venezuela’s Todosantos, a great electropop act that’s sadly dispersed now, they have left us with great tunes, their remix being one of them, they really owned it. Great track, middling remixes.

♫♫♫ "Antillas" (Todosantos Remix)
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