|
 Fiesta!
By
David Greenberger
Mexican Institute of Sound
Méjico
Máxico (Nacional)
 The
Pinker Tones
The
Million Colour Revolution (Nacional)
The
Los Angeles-based Nacional label originally was devoted to
the many possibilities of Latino music. While it continues
to primarily celebrate sounds from south of the border, it
also is finding sympathetic enterprises from across the ocean.
The Pinker Tones, a duo based in Barcelona, open their second
album by rolling out the red carpet with a veritable fanfare,
inviting everyone to enter their tent at the circus. Mister
Furia and Professor Manso offer up a kaleidoscopic celebration
replete with bossa nova, lounge music, hipster swing, hiphop,
and more. All of it serves to make one tumbling party from
beginning to end. It spills forth with fuzz guitar riffs,
turntables scratching, samples, chanted vocal choruses, wailing
trumpets, crowd sounds and nonstop beats. The furious pace
of the fun is amped up by the constantly modulated settings,
as one passage pops out of another like a psychedelic toy
set. “Beyond Nostalgia” offers a Jobim-like arrangement, but
is aptly titled, as they leapfrog the Brazilian from the ’60s
squarely into the 21st century. Ever wondered how Augie Meyers
and Joe Zawinul would get on if they met? “L’Heros” opens
with a garage-band Farfisa riff, only to give way to verses
built upon a wah-wah-pedaled electric piano.
The Mexican Institute of Sounds, also known as simply MIS,
is the one-man operation of Camilo Lara. Galloping across
the whole of the 20th century, the musical references embrace
Latin big bands, 1920s pop, electronica, dub, cha chas, cumbias
and much, much more. The 15 tracks on Méjico Máxico
follow one another like a panoramic ride through an impressionistic
portrait of Mexico City, full of bustle, hustle, lust, love,
dance and pizzazz. This is fearlessly modern music, drawing
freely from vibrant trends and resonant traditions. There
are shades of Esquivel, with the utilization of looped vocals,
exotic percussion and mixes that sound like a DeChirico painting
come to life, built upon extreme lines of perspective (most
notably on “Corasound” and “No Hay Masa Ya”). There’s also
a sympathetic alignment with such contemporaries as Cafe Tacuba,
as evidenced by the funky, guitar-driven “Hey Tia!” Every
45 minutes of music should aim to be this full of life.
All hail smart hipsters with unerring good taste and an unquenchable
thirst for experimentation!
Alejandro
Escovedo
The
Boxing Mirror (Backporch Records)
The latest release from alt- country icon Alejandro Escovedo
finds him recovered and somewhat chastened after battles with
both Hepatitis C and the rock & roll lifestyle. Producer
John Cale casts a mostly welcome avant-garde pall over a collection
of songs that serve as a summation of Escovedo’s rock/chamber
music aesthetic (Escovedo credits the master’s Paris 1919
as an essential touchstone for his own work).
The disc opens with a menacing triptych that culminates in
“Notes on Air,” featuring the provocative lyrics “I had to
bury my daughter today/And I can’t think about it too much”
(one of three sets of lyrics penned by Escovedo’s wife, poet
Kim Christoff). Escovedo intones passionately about a “buck
from the sky/Trampling a wandering doe” while former True
Believer bandmate Jon Dee Graham splatters the track with
frenetic guitar solos that are almost worth the price of admission.
After the pretty much flawless beginning, the rest of the
disc suffers a bit from a sameness that Cale tries to rectify
by quirking up the arrangements. While the “Raspberry Beret”-like
version of “Take Your Place” works better than the original
(hidden as an unlisted bonus track), the ’80s-vintage keyboard
sounds on this and other tracks unleash painful memories of
Huey Lewis and the News. Escovedo’s two tributes to his parents,
“Evita’s Lullaby” and the title track, are tender and somewhat
touching, but their melodic resemblance to one another (as
well as to the Who’s “The Song Is Over”) gets annoying upon
repeated listenings.
On the bright side, “Sacramento & Polk,” one of the most
kickass songs I’ve heard all year, is a fierce reminder that
Escovedo was a punk rocker long before he was No Depression’s
Artist of the Nineties. “Looking for Love” and “The Ladder”
are mature and clear-eyed love songs that any songwriter would
be proud to call their own. While The Boxing Mirror
has its share of highs, a few missteps keep it from being
the great Escovedo album we can thankfully still look forward
to hearing someday.
—Mike
Hotter
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