Marineros - "Torbellino"

A photo posted by Marineros (@omarineros) on May 20, 2016 at 5:34pm PDT

"Torbellino" dropped quietly just days before Club Fonograma's unforgettable encounter with Marineros in Chicago. Our full interview with the Chilean duo is forthcoming, but be prepared for a conversation regarding the limitations of Latinx identity, ancestral trauma, & darkness.

"Torbellino" is a gray number, with a transcendental bluish hue- cer & Soledad always have the blues. Produced by Christian Heyne and Soledad, it combines typical Marineros signifiers: hip-hop kicks and snares, love confessions & their signature melancholic skygaze. There is no guitar distortion here, but the sound of splintering metal gives to dream-pop at the 0:45s mark. cer's vocal melodies find a wider range, contemplating the eternal, starry skies, & romantic euphoria with an unusual sense of positivity & hope. "Torbellino" (which is also the name of their current international tour) will soon get a visual treatment and a new Marineros LP in 2017 seems likely. "In times such as these, there is no way to go but darker" cer told me in Wicker Park. Take my breath away.

Club Fonograma x Ruido Fest 2016

dënver 😱

A photo posted by Dani 👁👁 (@_badgaldani) on Jul 10, 2015 at 5:59pm PDT

Club Fonograma has been invited back to Ruido Fest for the 2016 edition of Chicago's premiere "Latin Alternative" Music Festival. Last year was glorious- an affirmation of the power of Club Fonograma and our quest to catalog and document emerging and established music from our milieu. From hanging out backstage with Dënver, getting drunk with Silverio and Jessy Bulbo (Jessy, I still have your luggage), to performing onstage with Maria y José, Ruido Fest 2015 was the place to be.

just aquí en Chicago, watching María y josé 🍕

A photo posted by Dani 👁👁 (@_badgaldani) on Jul 10, 2015 at 3:01pm PDT

This year, we will have the privilege of hanging out with Ibiza Pareo all weekend- fresh from their Argentinian Grammy nomination. We will also be catching up with Marineros and hand delivering some flowers to our girls, Natalia Lafourcade and Las Robertas. We most definitely will make contact with Miranda! and touch base on their artistic trajectory and their collaborations with our prince of pop, Alex Anwandter. We wanna chill hang with Helado Negro and personally thank him for the shout out he gave Club Fonograma in the LA Times. & Silverio might not attack me with a beer this year so there is plenty to look forward to this weekend at Ruido Fest 2016.

Mi vida punk con Jessy Bulbo & Markos #RuidoFest #ClubFonograma #PopInsurrection

A photo posted by 🏴 zé 👼🏾 (@pepe.acab) on Jul 12, 2015 at 3:56pm PDT

Purchase tickets here and stay tuned for Ruido Fest 2017. There were many Club Fonograma favorites who were considered for the 2016 edition of the fest (Javiera Mena, Alex Anwandter, Fakuta, Ases Falsos, Diosque, Tego Calderon) that might make the cut next year. Check out our in-depth coverage of Ruido Fest 2015 and our explosive conversations with Dënver, Silverio, Jessy Bulbo, and more.

los enamorados, Dani & Gio. 

Marineros - “El Lado Oscuro de Tu Corazón”

Self-described as their most romantic song yet, Marineros' "El lado oscuro de tu corazón" is an instantly affecting ballad. After many singles of blending a tough, guitar-heavy (or just heavy) sound to pit against Constanza Espina’s delicate voice, the duo have softened their technique. Oneiric beats float in and out as melodic guitar lines sweep in to complete the picture, leaving a feeling of warmth. And yet, buried into its lyrics is also lingering pain of failed romance, and so the song is really classic Marineros as we’ve come to know them over the years. Bittersweet to the end, and made for deep backseat reflections. Marineros remain a treasure in the new class of Chilean pop.

Marineros - "Secretos"

We are now four singles into the promo cycle for Marineros' debut so I won't even speculate into tentative things (like, release dates). Instead, we can at least be certain that their newest single, "Secretos," is among the duo's strongest to date.

While the title suggests a kind of quiet intimacy, "Secretos" is actually overwhelmed by the emotions it's experiencing. It's a song about catching feelings and the collateral damage that comes with it: "Inevitable sentir / la fuerza que nos trajo aquí." Finally, we have a scuzzy summer entry that's made for the mall rats who attended Lana Del Rey's Endless Summer tour (with Courtney Love) and the angsty teens who stayed at home and just listened to them on YouTube.

Video: Marineros - "Oh Oh"

Like its predecessor “Espero,” the new single by Marineros isn’t brand new to us. That is, of course, if you’ve been as engaged in the unfolding of Marineros as Chile’s most promising newcomers. “Oh Oh” (in its finished edit) was first presented to our staff last year by Cristian Heyne, when the track was meant to accompany “Espero” as a b-track. We are glad they chose to hold on to the track instead, and even happier they’ve given it the audiovisual and promotional treatment. Not only does the single offers Marineros great amounts of momentum, it also validates the act’s atemporal craftsmanship. Under the scope of Álvaro Puentes (director of “Espero”), the clip is like a marketing dossier whose almost-static use of space keeps the song’s melody and urban flirtations clear and focused. Constanza and Soledad are still in the shade, wearing black, and keeping themselves distant to the camera –a personal-detachment practice that keeps their promising career that much more exciting.

Video: Marineros - "Espero"

Assuming we're all on the same page here, it was just a few months ago that the name Marineros began popping up like news of Gabbo's debut. And all there was to go on was a Radio Zero/Super 45 session that saw two young unknowns casually cover Mazzy Star and sneak in morsels of original material, sleek and confident tracks with a solemn performance that immediately earned them the title of a Chilean xx. Within weeks they quietly launched the standard fare of social media profiles, but then enough time passed where it felt like all we got were the fixings but no beef. The wait is finally over, and whether or not their approach was presumptuous or fully-earned is too soon to tell, what we do know is that right now Marineros has our complete attention.

"Espero" in its finished form is even more rousing than we were led to believe. The Álvaro Puentes-directed clip is about as auspicious as they come, expertly linking restrained anamorphic scenes in black and white to the anxious cries found in its single. While other bands are content to let nature play the lead in their own music videos, Marineros are thrown right in, acting out a nearly insatiable effort to find answers, wherever they come from. An overcast sky lingers for the majority of the video, and indeed there's a sense that a storm is approaching. It never happens, but as the motorbike engine sounds hint at, a confrontation is inevitable, and Marineros are ready to take on all forms, physical, emotional, and existential. Just pray there's a part two in the works. Marineros is the first artist signed by Unión del Sur (a label founded by Javiera Mena and Cristián Heyne). "Espero" will be released as a single (with the accompanying track "Oh Oh") and is produced by Heyne and mastered by Joe Lambert (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Washed Out).