Mañaneros - El Sonido de lo Inevitable

El Sonido de lo Inevitable, Mañaneros

Empresaurio, Chile

Rating: 87

by Enrique Coyotzi

It’s been a while since a release title had resounded so strikingly accurate to the music it holds. El Sonido de lo Inevitable, Mañaneros’ astonishingly constructed EP, easily works like the sound of a new era–one that couldn’t be avoided, where tribal transcends demographics. Psych rock and krautrock, among other unforeseen genres, subtly merge with global bass and sharp electronica through mind-numbing progressions, resulting in irresistible dance numbers and meditative brain-drillers. The Chilean innovators have crafted a collection of five songs that feel both logical and completely different from any recent fusion you’ve heard lately. It’s the kind of mixture you would’ve imagined after all the tribal boom exploded, but Mañaneros have been part of the game way before that happened and, as proven in highlights “El Volcán” and “Baby Tropical,” have perfected it in their own peculiar style.

Led by extravagant fashion and blasting delirium, the Chilean ensemble has created a set of environmental pieces enhanced by well-chosen exotic elements: the flavorful samples of digitally resonant yeahs in “Baby Tropical,” ferocious feline roars in “El Volcán,” the spaciously trippy vocals and entrancing wavelengths of “Cisco Router,” cutesy sounds of chirping birds in “Playita,” dolphins crying and overall Caribbean acid-mood. And, no shit, Don Francisco even makes an appearance in the murky “Lévantate y Come,” transforming it into an even scarier swallow. Each of these monstrous songs possess the quality of drawing an individual atmosphere, never repeating themselves, therefore transmitting a grandiloquent amount of sensations, along the enviable attribute of new sound discoveries caused by repeated listens, reached thanks to the sensible and detailed craftsmanship in these expansive productions.

Despite being familiar with three of these tracks already (including “Baby Tropical,” #1 in our 2012 Midyear Report) and only the inclusion of two new compositions, El Sonido de lo Inevitable functions as something special, a collection of propulsive songs that sound like nothing else, whose perplexing, outlandish delight should strike any electronic music admirer. The EP commences with those tracks that had hit before our radar and establishes a wild build-up that grows from the most danceable numbers to the most explorative ones. Newest offerings, “Playita” and “Levántate y Come,” find Mañaneros stepping into an experimental realm. Enticing beats and agitated architecture color “Playita,” portraying a sunny landscape that relies on vivid instrumentals. Closer “Levántate y Come” reaches the spooky levels accomplished in Scott Walker’s The Drift, as a krautish downtempo prayer where the devil commands and shows up in the vertiginous ending (“Levántate, hijo/Soy el diablo”).

Considering they came out of nowhere, Mañaneros have expertly made a name of their own in the blogosphere. And this should come as no surprise. Ever since “El Volcán” was included in our Fonogramáticos Vol.13, we knew they were a one-of-a-kind, spectacular act. Pioneers of their own grand movement, Mañaneros demonstrate with El Sonido de lo Inevitable the intelligence of fusion within fresh development, smart genre-inclusion, and boundless talent for achieving it.

Levántate y Come by mañaneros

Mañaneros - "Cisco Router"

At this point it’s unclear to us whether Mañaneros are planning to ever release an EP or full-length, or if they’ll just be content with dropping puzzling tracks on SoundCloud until the platform becomes obsolete. Last year, “El Volcán” was the first tribal track to ever make it into a Fonogramáticos compilation, and, like CF's Adrián Mata Anaya said in his year-end blurb of it, "Chilean pop holds more tribes than we know of." Oh, and if you still aren’t familiar with any of the tracks these guys have put up so far, then go listen to “El Volcán” right now and, if you can, please send us a snapshot of your facial reaction. “Cisco Router,” the latest track to show up on the Chilean band's SoundCloud, sees them starting to expand their sonic palette beyond the indubitably weird, messy, and fucked up tribal and global bass of their initial tracks, thus showing off that they’re not content with being seen as the kids jumping on the dance du jour.

For someone who’s built most of his record/mp3 collection out of listening to bands playing guitars, the track feels like something out of Can’s Future Days had laptops been available and had they decided to record it during a memorable peyote-infused trip from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego (I’ve obviously never taken peyote). Like most of Can, “Cisco Router” is popular and avant-garde, primal and progressive, 4/4 music and free-form music. More precisely, it’s some spacey shit dressed up in an indigenous outfit, capable of showing off the genre-hopping versatility of Tony Gallardo and the psych-prog ambition of Bam Bam. It actually puts Mañaneros in the oddly unusual place where all of our musical tastes meet, as if they’d somehow found the jarringly pleasant sweet spot where 3Ball MTY and Pegasvs finally meet.

MP3: Mañaneros - "Baby Tropical"

When Mañaneros’ grandiloquent hit “El Volcán” came our way, I think we all cringed a bit. Here we had an out-of-nowhere band that was so loud and so monstrously into themselves that they had us saying, “Jeez! Chileans are also freakishly great at tribal.” In a weird way, “El Volcán” officially took Chile’s indie from an all-the-family pop scene into a prospecting and more diversified field. The four-piece act is prepping the release of their first EP, Levantate y Come, and has unveiled another badass single that intermingles tribal dub with merengue and polka. “Baby Tropical” is a subsequent home run for Mañaneros, who score another hit devoid of any templates, instead surveying as many platforms as Edgar Wright in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. “Baby Tropical” is like the meeting of Proyecto Uno and Das Racist, so blissfully satanical and so celebratory of the morning erections.

♫♫♫ "Baby Tropical" | Facebook