Emilio José - "Kim Kardashian" / "Bruna Linzmeyer"

It’s unlikely now that we will ever get over Chorando Apréndese, Emilio José’s sweeping and epic masterwork. Few pop albums, in the Ibero-sphere or anywhere, challenged us the way Chorando did. It’s the Infinite Jest of independent music. Everything from the linguistic stunts to the restless, nonlinear style gave Emilio José’s work a mythic, ephemeral quality. Like an elusive beast that only rears its head at certain times of the day. One could then say that his snippet-heavy approach was a courtesy, meaning we weren’t ready to hear fully fleshed, traditional “songs.”

This, of course, changed with time. As we learned from later work (the unforgettable “A amazide”), Emilio José could do more than scurry on their own melodies. They could evolve and build towards something made to stand on its own. Earlier this year we were ecstatic to receive a 20 minute medley teasing his new album, and yet a part of us was also intimated as hell. How could we even begin to imagine a full-length album of songs on this scale?

Thankfully, the two newest teases ("Kim Kardashian" and "Bruna Linzmeyer") have been an instant delight to experience. “Kim Kardashian” breathes along to woodwinds and whimsy. The reference to the ubiquitous Kim K (the most popular person on Instagram) is an afterthought. Emilio José sounds smitten by all women, like something out of Les Contes d'Hoffmann (without the heartbreak and deceit). Side B (“Bruna Linzmeyer”), is a gorgeous dance track made from the scraps of top 40 radio. The song teases a climax that never arrives and takes more joy in the buildup from handclaps and soft vocals in true Emilio José fashion. Agricultura Livre is set to arrive next month. Be ready.

Emilio José meets La Lupe

Emilio José is one strange dude. If you've seen clips from his concerts, you probably know what I"m talking about. According to Javiera Mena, he got naked (or almost got naked) during a performance last year, and she remembers it. But that isn't completely strange in rockstars. How about this: sometimes he's playing a song and right in the middle of it, he stops to describe it, or even say "excuse me, this is how it's supposed to sound." So it's not a big surprise that when the guys from Waaau.tv invited him to perform a cover on video, he came up with something a bit different (truly the most unsuspected 'version' of a song we've seen in a while). He pays homage in a weird, yet sublime way to the great La Lupe and her song "No Te Vayas." The result is a sort of epic visual piece of "art at the corner", it's raw and it's tragic.

Via La Pagina de la Nadadora

MP3: Emilio José - "Febreiro"

Compared to popular consensus, Emilio José has always treated “Febreiro” as the core-single of his masterpiece Chorando Aprendese. The song is somewhat catchy and one of the album’s highlights, but for an artist whose Best of the Decade list consisted mainly of full-blown pop hits by Britney Spears and Daddy Yankee, his attachment to the song seems to stand on personal ground. It’s either that, or that he might have a different concept of pop music, which would actually make a lot of sense. Now that I reflect upon it, I feel like when I was a kid (and didn't know much English), I used to mumble to many Britney songs, now I find myself doing the same while singing Emilio's anthems in Galician.

The pop Olympian has reconditioned “Febreiro”, and like many directors’ cuts, it gets much deeper into the author’s intent. He gets rid of the opening & inner monologues, to create a high-concept linear song. It’s not the spectacularly promising 15-minute version many of us were salivating for, but it’s the perfect way to give February a closure.

♫♫♫ "Febreiro"

New Single: Emilio José - "A Amizade"

We once compared Emilio José's methods of composition and production to that of an expandable spreadsheet of “music as art, and something else.” Galicia's olympian hero known for structuring about a dozen songs within single non-linear pieces isn’t bringing us a puzzle this time around. He is all set to drop a new single-release next Monday (December 13), it is titled A Amizade and marks the first release from newborn vinyl-exclusive label Discos Garibaldi. If for any reason you need more info to get this 7’’, know there are only 500 copies printed on a gorgeous GREEN vinyl with about five songs on it (which as you know, might translate into a few dozen pieces). He has scooped Club Fonograma and our dearest friends from La Pagina de la Nadadora to stream the single’s CARA A, the title track of course.

Emilio Jose describes A Amizade as one of the most rare and distinctive records he will ever release in his career, he also claims it is his most evident ‘POP’ hour yet, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from him is how to rock mountains with unpredictability. There are no Care Bares or Dragon Ball Z excerpts here, just pure Emilio José magic; heart-warming vocals swinging in search for harmony, a ‘bumbumbum’ vocal backdrop providing neo-soul emotions and the emergence of sharp edges of harps and flutes coming in to celebrate friendship, (A Amizade: La Amistad). His definition of pop is clearly stretched and this might not a seminal moment in his career, nonetheless, spectacularly charming and quite addictive.

MP3: Emilio José - "Ipanema 6 20"

While Emilio José spends his afternoons trying to bring Caprica back to the Syfy channel, he is also making history. According to the premise of her latest song “Ipanema 6 20”, our pop hero is said to have made the first pop song recorded on a phonographic cylinder. We’re clearly not the most adequate guys to tell you about music archive or give you lecture on sound and its history; but we can tell you this song is a mesmerizing exercise accomplished through both, primitive and 2010 recording practices. This track brings up a debate on the purpose and functionality of a song; it’s intriguing to study the structure of the recording, its physicality (or digitality), if it’s more than just mp3 file, or the overall experience of recording with such extraordinary methods.

Read a deeper and far better description of “Ipanema 6 20” at SINSALaudio, the project responsible for this very cool piece. It might just be us, but it actually sounds like one of the new songs by Kanye, except we all know Emilio is anything but heartless. The song is not even 2 minutes long, yet we’re confident to call it Emilio’s most ‘pop’ moment yet. As you might remember, his debut album Chorando Aprendese was our #1 album of the year in 2009; we can’t wait for the next one.

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.

Iconoscopio #1: Emilio José - "Eirasvedras"

While Emilio José is finishing up his first music video for “Febreiro” from the amazing Chorando Aprendese, the Spanish website Iconoscopio did a wonderfully loopy video for “Eirasvedras”, a song not even us had heard of. My friend claims all of his songs sound the same, and indeed they’re structured similarly, but he’s a master working on proximity. Iconoscopio is a videoblog that constructs videos for songs that are sent to them, the songs cannot exceed the 2-minute mark, which of course wasn’t a problem for Emilio José. The project is directed by Juan Lesta and Belen Montero, who have previously worked with some of Spain’s most renowned artists such as Fangoria, La Buena Vida and Astrud. Although the video isn’t as groundbreaking as those clips from 31 Minutos, it’s damn FRESH.

Random Double Feature: Os Gru Remix Emilio José + Da Kezo does Cri Cri

This post is very random because the two songs here are exactly that, random. They wouldn’t exactly fit anywhere else but I wanted to share them because they’re quite good and dislocate my senses in weird ways. First, Os Gru left us this remix at our MySpace with the most intriguing question: A vosotros los del club, os mola bailar, verdad? Pues os dejamos por aquí nuestro last mix. Of course que nos mola bailar, and especially if we know the song, and oh we really know this one. Is a burnished mix for Emilio Jose’s “Adeus, Feijoo”, which was already a great dance tune, and celebration of a fictitious death.

♫♫♫ "Adeus Feijoo" (Os Gru Mix) [right click, save as]

The second song comes from Da Kezo, one of the several projects by Mutantek who is also part of Children of the Moon and whose song “Peter Pan” is part of our Fonogramaticos Vol.3 compilation. Da Kezo is a very weird merge of electronic music with children’s music. It’s very interesting; you’ll hear Cri Cri in there and some hardcore rock band jumping back and forth. I can already imagine my grandparents and a couple of friends not liking this, I think it’s playful.

♫♫♫ "Matatetete" (right click, save as)

Bat 1, Mursego

BAT 1, MURSEGO
Independiente, Spain
Rating: 79
By Carlos Reyes

Mursego is the strange and obscure project from Maite Arroitajauregi; we know very little about her except that her performances found on YouTube are marvelous and her first installment Bat 1 is an impressive perhaps too mysterious revelation from a name we’re sure to keep on mind for a while. Bat 1 lacks any form of location and time-frame, opening its wing to a line of languages, genres and ideas, very much like Emilio Jose’s Chorando Aprendese and Za!’s Macumba o Muerte this is a trip to a bunch of exotic places, or as some observers have caught, a new approach to middle-eastern ground through a revolting sepia-toned sound.

This approach of exoticism is well introduced by Maite’s raspy vocals; they really intensify the very terrestrial vibe of seven songs that, for the best or the worst lack strike to be profound. From shimmy chants to straight-out demanding songs, Mursego’s bold and confident record manages to shield itself from the vulnerable folky-progressive album it could’ve been; instead, it adjusts to pop’s enchantment, very much like Micachu and the Shapes. In fact, “Subir Arriba, Baixar Abaixo” sounds very much like Micachu’s brilliant post-punk album Jewellery, instead of the overflow of clashes Mursego opts to keep its sense of depth with violins & taps. “Bals de Sorcieres” is a mysterious, hardcore instrumental opener, again utilizing chords to create a misty atmosphere which is given continuum in “Tanqueray”, which features soprano-like vocals that underline her virtuous range.

The much discussed Manos de Topo gets some love in “Zuuu” (what an appropriate title), it’s a hilarious homage to “Tortilla”, one of my favorite tracks from El Primero Era Mejor. This piece also reminded me of Bebe and her Gitano village shouts. “My Laptopiste” is a song to get lost in, it’s a space for unsecured feelings to resolve peace once and for all. She also works with more abstract themes in “Down by the Water”, an ideal track for those Dirty Projectors fans. The concluding track “Hiru Errege Maila” returns to the violin fest, here at a much rapid speed to give it a nice round closing, or keep its thrilling mystery rolling.

♫♫♫ "Subir Arriba, Baixar Abaixo"
MySpace

Featured: "Adeus Feijóo", Emilio José

Emilio José has joined that group of names we don’t hesitate to talk about on a daily basis, that group that includes the acts behind ‘El Ruidoson’ (Maria y José, Los Amparito, Los Macuanos), Valentina Fel and Rita Indiana y Los Misterios, at this point the most exciting fresh sounds of the year. Emilio keeps releasing brilliant songs and expect many more to come, this is the first release post-Chorando Aprendese and as political as “Barack Obama.” This new song is titled “Adeus Feijóo” and is a fictitious suicide of Galicia’s current president Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, a moment of fantasized hysteria and celebration a la Death of a President (Gabriel Range, 2006).

Much of Chorando Aprendese stands on political ground but never as acidly rich and pleasurable as in “Adeus Feijóo.” Of course, don’t expect a linear narrative and don’t try to put an order to his songs. The entrance is brilliantly cynical, a celebration, “todo mundo a bailar”, transitions to the news of the President’s suicide who apparently jumped from a building, it follows the obvious chaos after the loss while our character has to be taken to the hospital “sangrando de felicidad.”

♫♫♫ "Adeus Feijóo"

"Anju Kitahara", Emilio José

Yes, another song by Emilio José for your collection. There would hardly be a superior debut album this year, those 28 tracks reveal so much, if everything keeps its flow it might just end up as my favorite album of the year, we’ll see. “Anju Kitahara” could’ve been part of Chorando Aprendese and it would’ve made it stronger (if that’s even possible), it’s the catchiest piece I’ve heard from him out of the 62 tracks I got by his name on my library (mostly demos).

♫♫♫ "Anju Kitahara"

Chorando Aprendese, Emilio José

CHORANDO APRENDESE, EMILIO JOSE
Foehn, Spain *****
Rating: 95
By Carlos Reyes

My iPod just got a whole lot more interesting with the arrival of Chorando Aprendese; the bleakest, most complex and gorgeous breakthrough album this year has given us. Emilio Jose is an unbelievable revelation to keep an eye on; he is the owner of a graceful sense of melody and an out-of-this-world ambition that cements amazingly clever moments throughout a double album of 28 tracks total. But don’t let such big number scare you, he makes this voyage a precious moment of non-stop march-like protestation. In fact, get prepared to inhale various tricks, harmonies, and unexpected shifts within each song; he approaches ideas with adventurous aim, unrolling a diverse palette of genres that go from bossa nova to rap, going through Spain’s vanguard indiepop and gently sloping into classic stanza.

How ambitious is it? Let’s say that Chorando Aprendese is anti-folk, wants to be pop and once at it, it might just redefine Brazil’s over-inflated contemporary music. Emilio Jose ruthlessly sings in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Catalan, Gallego, French, Italian and I bet there’s more in there I didn’t quite get. Of course this is an excessive scheme, but before a bright writer, he is an originator and destroyer, he knows that such ambition can only be polished with even higher aspirations, and indeed, his musical composition surpasses any necessity of understanding words. Let’s dismiss any kind of encyclopedic reasoning; this is by all means the work of an author playing anti-hero, but it doesn’t stop him from trying to adjust the world by squishing it together or tilting music to uncommon places for that matter.

Disco Uno. There’s no definite division in concept or theme between the two discs, but the first side is clearly the point to meet, acclimate and discover. Through its piano-based melody and induction to group-vocals, the intro is a great example of how radical works are best portrayed by classicism rather than pure experientialism alone. “Atlantic City” literally spells out what the album is about or at least its structure; there is no base layer whatsoever, plenty of unexpected transitions, quick catchy choruses, and awesome samplings from speeches, movies and TV shows. In this particular track the inclusion of the Care Bears sing-along explodes charm into an already easy-listening track that nonetheless is one of the album’s most complex pieces. “Vodka” is what a creepy teenager who doesn’t like La Casa Azul or Cola Jet Set would probably listen to; it’s like the song matures within itself, going from a happy bright song of call-and-response and flourishing into a well cultivated adult folk.

Chorando Aprendese gets political in “Barack Obama”, although it does give reference to the American state of mind, what it really wants to do is to bring Madrid awareness of its countryside. The song breaks into a despaired rap as it realizes there isn’t much to be done for a conclusion. “Samba de Ines” was not that exciting at first, but it later turns into a musical rainbow that rotates, translates, and reflects. And let’s not forget the memorable “Son Gohan”, in reference to Dragon Ball of course, or the funky tongue-twisting “Astroturfing” which turns into a video game. The best track pops near the end with “Antigua”, questioning the mellowness of voters at the time of embracing a politician, and that baby gugu loop that follows is priceless.

Disco Dos. The other side is sweeter and very low-key, shorter in length and more instrumental. First, let me get something out of my system, “Ola!” has to be one of the most touching pieces of the year along with Nuuro’s “Coctachi” and Juan Son’s “Ana Paula.” It’s a heartbreaking remorseful song where a guy tries to win its love back; it gets some help from Dallas (the TV series), “I Apologize” (the classic hit by Billy Eckstine), a flashback in voice-off and a heart-trenching opera. “Ti” is the catchiest song in the whole album, it’s a vocal fest and utterly round. Other standouts on this side are “Febreiro” and “Parada de Sil”, both sounding very rural and gigantically reviving the wall of sound. Six short cuts give the album a concrete finale to an album that is close to a masterpiece, expect a lot of attention in the upcoming months or maybe years, it will travel and hopefully get its due.

♫♫♫ "Antigua"


♫♫♫ "Ola!"

Download LP
MySpace