MP3: FLYBACK - "Si No Le Contesto" (Plan B Cover)

For the last two years, Venezuelan blog NTSFRSH has been our preferred source for the new prospects of tropical music and all of its global cousins. Last year the blog extended its content-creating duties developing the exciting Cocobass Records, home of Fonograma favorites like María y José and Los Macuanos. Owner of a gifted aesthetic eye and a shameless eclecticism, Eduardo Luis Hernández, one of the franchise’s masterminds, is taking the first steps into developing his own musical act under the moniker FLYBACK (FLYB∆CK for those with enough swag).

Although it was almost completely omitted by mainstream Latin pop-rhythmic radios across the States, Plan B’s hit “Si No Le Contesto” was the absolute zeitgeist across many regions of the continent last year. The song’s official video counts over 51 million views, an insane number for a reggaeton song nowadays. Plan B is one of those urban acts worthy to watch, with hardcore fans that include Tego Calderón, Arcángel, and Dávila 666. Although Flyback admits vocals aren’t his biggest strength, he has paid tribute to the Plan B song in a rendition that highlights the original’s pop structure, adding plenty of glittering tropical depth along the way. By practicing some clever tricks and distortion, Flyback pushes the song’s pedestrianism to even further places.

♫♫♫ "Si No Le Contesto" (Plan B Cover)
Soundcloud

Featured: Pernett - "Perikitus!"

Sometimes I write good things on Twitter; recently I described Pernett’s “Perikitus!” as a track as waterly delicious as Animal Collective’s “My Girls.” And that could be read as a stretch from my part, because one song is about birds and the other about capturing our current state of individualism, see they’re not too far away from each other, and yes they run through the same vein music-wise. Pernett sings about Colombia in the most colorful and embryonic ways. If your ears need some refreshment, Pernett’s latest El Mago is for you. But we’ll get to the whole album soon; in the meantime let’s get to one of my favorite songs of the moment, and one of the very best from our Fonogramaticos Vol..6 compilation.

“Perikitus!” is a fascinating poetic piece about birds, wings and colors. “Vuelan periquitos sobre Barranquilla, cometas de colores que el cielo estampillan, flores del viento que cantan felices…” That phrase alone should be enough to stimulate the senses, if not, force your way into it, at this point what’s important is to get you floating one way or another. It’s the sound fluttering its surrounding space, a kind of self-aware beauty that celebrates its own march; notice the fireworks between the song’s layers, notice its whimsicality! This is flat-out gorgeous. I found this video over at YouTube, which Pernett uses as visual background for his live shows, very fitting.

♫♫♫ "Perikitus!"
MySpace

Kana Kapila, Kana Kapila

KANA KAPILA, KANA KAPILA
Independiente, Spain
Rating: 76
By Carlos Reyes

There are albums so dusty within their same shores they’re forced to reconcile their beach-extravaganza with something even more glowing, undergraduate lyricis. For the bad or the worst, this practice has achieved a status of greatness, a kind of eternal youth on sequence; all this sweat to justify brainy drums. And there’s no better place to approach the sunny trend than in Spain’s line of cranky pop, the smartest (although kind of careless) subgenre of the tonti-pop movement. So many stipulations to try to introduce Kana Kapila, a very tricky (and quite impressive) act whose sound lingers in just about any direction and trend in the book.

While all this exposure doesn’t add up to the most original band or the most vanguard of sounds, Kana Kapila is very close to what global pop is beginning to sound like. Not that they are the first band to catch the style (Extraperlo, Coconot and Vampire Weekend come to mind) but Kana Kapila is starting to get the attention while they’re still on diapers, a wonderful opportunity to dissemble the pop trend at its precooked, youthful stage. Kana Kapila is the first proper material of the band, although it still maintains a demo tag, something not really obvious quality-wise. It goes by quick; it’s part of its immediateness and uniform mind-set. Starting the show with “Caribe para niños” is one of the many precise choices that make this album to stand out; there’s just something regarding its structure that is so pleasantly presented, in an invisible style kind of way, where it appears like no choices were made and everything just got on its feet naturally.

One thing to always keep in mind with Spain’s beach pop is that it’s crowded with humor and idiosyncratic wittiness that could alienate listeners, or prevent them to ‘fully’ get it. But here is pretty straight forward, I mean if you know Gloria Estefan and Alejandro Sanz “Frente Tropical” should grab some laughs. The song (and possible single) samples Estefan’s “Conga” and Sanz’s “No es lo mismo” in a hilarious Miami sketchy piece. And it continues with a Kafka-influenced metamorphosis ("Multivitamin"), becoming a fruit!, while “El Coco” provides the possibilities of how to utilize coconut as a recreational, gastronomical and health resource (it just warns you not to make a fragrance out it, thank you!). Throughout the album, it’s hard not to feel an excess of jumps and feel they’re refusing continuity, but other than that, Kana Kapila is a hopeful, cosmopolitan, and reachable cool band.

♫♫♫ "Frente Tropical"
MySpace

Featured: "No Conectado", Capullo

Capullo is a fresh exciting new act from Aguascalientes, Mexico. The first thing that popped in my mind when I heard Capullo is that their vocals sound just like jj (n° 2) and to a lesser extend Micachu (and the Shapes). They also endorse youth through blissful catchy songs with unmeasured consequence. Perhaps a bit too adolescent for many of you to swallow, but it’s a bright vision in development. Ultimately, it’s irresistible not to smile to a song like “No Conectado”, which they kindly send us for you to download and which is like the conscious generational implantation of “Amor Por Internet” by Los Socios del Ritmo.

“Ya no puedo más con esta soledad, esta soledad tan digital.” They don’t sound far away from La Factoria, but those guys wish they had so much personality and niche as Capullo does. This is after all popular music with juicy reggaeton beats and techno, here is a band with huge potential to actually sell music. They don’t mind singing about nicks and emoticons as silly as they may sound, and they even dare to style something as odd as “Merequeteke.” Can they get cooler than that? Yes, they’re WordArt lovers!

♫♫♫ "No Conectado"
MySpace

Commercial, Los Amigos Invisibles

COMMERCIAL, LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES
Nacional Records, Venezuela ****
Rating: 84
By Carlos Reyes

You gotta give it to them; Los Amigos Invisibles have earned themselves a spot as a major transcendental band that goes beyond playing ‘Latin rhythms’, they’re Venezuela’s most predominant asset and their sixth studio album is more than a continuum to a healthy career with plenty to say and breath. For the first time they dispatch the word ‘Venezuela’ from the album title, luckily the vision has not blurred a bit, but they are making precise alterations that step them out of comfort zone. I’ve always found their music very muscular, perhaps because I feel my muscles intensified while dancing to it, but also because their gozadera functions around sensuality, and although their first albums had an exceptional pedestrian sound to them, Superpop Venezuela was a turning point as it curved their exercise into an actual ‘erotic dream.’

Commercial reinforces moments of arousal and anticipation, and in a way this is their most romantic hour yet, but their scrumptious cynicism is bound to stay for everyone’s pleasure. On a recent podcast on Panamerika the guys from Jovenes y Sexys totally nailed it with their description of the band: “the most emblematic band from Venezuela and the one that best represents the idiosyncrasy of the lazy, vulgar and macho Venezuelan persona.” I think these positive adjectives would be hard to understand by other cultures, it really takes a Latin mindset (from a Latino or someone fully aware of our culture) to process the acid humor and commentary Los Amigos bring into their music and most importantly, as a behavioral impulse. I mean, just go to the album’s booklet, find the ‘thank you list’ and after listing their love partners they give the last shout out to “Manuela”, who keeps them company during extensive touring, if you get it (or not) than you probably get my point.

“Fuerza” is a fantastic introduction, they give themselves some pretty legit words to tell the world what their made up; “strength, power, durability …, versatility, potency, comfort, elegance, vanguard” among others, anything to get you ready for the incredible leading single. “Mentiras” is the denial anthem for those filthy naughty cheating guys; the first words of the song “esas son puras mentiras” place the listener right on the spot. Its narrative is so instant and urgent as if it was made for a sitcom, I mean this song would be great as a leading song for a telenovela, there’s not too many made for guys and those around would hardly strengthen the image of a Don Juan. The disc immediately follows with the single’s counterpoint, “Vivire Para Ti” is one of the sweetest songs to have flourished from them. It promises fidelity and to make love a reason to live, the response comes from Natalia Lafourcade’s gifted vocals that embrace the gentleman’s proposition as they get inspired and make love.

The band continues to expose its tropical rhythms to an audience that wouldn’t listen to salsa or merengue, but these guys keep contemporary tropical rolling into new horizons. Some of the standout tropical pieces include the smothering “Loco Por Tu Amor”, the half merengue half metallic “Merengue Killa”, and a trip to Brazil in “Es La Verdad.” But the juiciest song here has to be “Oyeme Nena”, it steps away from any spice of funk or house to reveal itself as a beautiful salsa; actually, the best salsa moment I’ve had since Marc Anthony’s tremendously impressive soundtrack for El Cantante. “Plastic Women” is bound to have some attention; a woman’s road to perfection in the hands of plastic surgery. And, don’t skip the interludes, they’re probably are the year’s best, in particular “Desnudos” and “Romantico Palman Izum” which you’ll be playing over and over as the album itself. By the end of the album you’ll be nodding your head in agreement with the album’s confident and proper intro.

♫♫♫ "Vivire Para Ti" (feat. Natalia Lafourcade)
buy it @ amazon.com
MySpace

Gorila Contra Bear Mixtape by El Guincho

Back in October of last year El Guincho made the Gorila Contra Bear mixtape (in honor of badass blog Gorilla vs Bear), with awesome songs by Yoruba Andabo, Trio Matamoros, Phyllis Dillon, The Congos, Fase Nuova, Extraperlo, Roberto Carlos among others. Thing is, El Guincho along with GvsB, imeem and Beggars made an actual mixtape and made 10 copies of it which they would give away to 10 people that would post the mixtape or embed it through their blog, MySpace or any other social network. You can see where this is going, I got one! THANKS.

Seriously, what a better way to make finals week seem nicer, these hours of studying are actually enjoyable, I don't mind that it took 7 months for it to get to me, after all, El Guincho made custom cover art for each one of the cassettes himself. In addition to the mixtape, I got a poster, a Palmitos Park 7'' vinyl, and the Alegranza CD. Anyway, just thought I would share it, I'm showing off probably but remember Alegranza! was my favorite album of 2008. Best of luck to all college kids with those exams, here is the mixtape again since it's helping me a lot, it's only 30 minutes long but you can always pop in his CD for more tropicalia extravaganza.

Download Gorila Contra Bear Mixtape

Rita Indiana > Miti Miti

I heard this dope song called “La Sofi” over at Harold’s really cool corner, I wasn’t too sure what to make of it, but it’s plenty of fun. So I contacted him looking for some info on the girl behind it, he tells me is Rita Indiana from Miti Miti, it was one of those ‘duh’ moments that still get you by surprise, this song was from a previous project. Miti Miti is a very cool project from New York, formed by two insanely sexy girls, Indiana Martinez and Raina Mast. I’m not fully convinced of the actual execution of their funky merengue in their album (Jean-Stephane says they're amazing live) but there is definitely talent there, in fact, plenty of expectation of what they might do next. Here are two tracks to get a taste; “La Sofi” in particular is insanely infectious.

♫♫♫ "La Sofi"
♫♫♫ "Darte"
MySpace

At Carrnegie Hall, Buena Vista Social Club

AT CARNEGIE HALL
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
World Circuit/Nonesuch, Cuba ****1/2
Rating: 90
By Carlos Reyes

A ravishing and unforgettable night of wrinkled musicians enlightened a sold-out Carnegie Hall in New York, thankfully it was recorded. Ry Cooder embraced a generation of Cuban masters that although were still extremely talented, had dissolved in the memory of Cuban arts. Cooder’s outsider view of these musical treasures made their album a classic and in 1996 the best selling world album of all time (some 8 million copies). An academy award nominated documentary was also exquisitely produced, adding to the already engaging charm of the good looking club. After over a decade of this performance, World Circuit releases an overwhelming recording that proves this project has no age and will have a healthy and timeless transcendence. The departure of some of its visionaries like Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer were heartbreaking, performing at Carnegie Hall was a life-time dream for many of them, and this 2-disc set package is a fantastic proof of the day their dream was fulfilled. A chunk of the club keeps releasing high quality material, especially Omara Portuondo who does an excellent job here in the album’s vivacious version of “Quizas Quizas.” The production is vivid and round, unlike most live albums recorded at large auditoriums, Carnegie Hall as we know has the greatest acoustics. The package also includes a 32 page booklet that you can download as a PDF file here. Buena Vista Social Club brought life into Latin music; suddenly the world had a close eye on tropical music and in search for the upcoming classicists. There is a moment where the “I’ve been here already” pops up, but the poignant feeling never leaves, the music goes on and the suddenly you realize that the ghosts had never sounded so colorful.

♫♫♫ “De Camino a la vereda”
♫♫♫ “Changui Pal Monte” (Via CMS)
Buy it @ amazon.com
MySpace