7 posts tagged “spanish”
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Where we last left off in my series of a Spanish Summer, Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada brought a mostly instrumental Spanish soundtrack and Natalia Clavier brought such a lovely Argentinian voice. With this entry, I am hoping to introduce you to the psychedelic 60s sounding Mexican pop music of Los Fancy Free. I like how their name actually sounds like a bastardized version of 'footloose and fancy free'.
Nevergreens Vol 1, Los Fancy Free's third album, is only the first of a series of what singer Martin Thulin describes as a journey by train: "You leave the downtown station... travel though suburbs and industrial areas.. Suddenly you reach the countryside; open landscape... a forest, a lake... a village... the sea and then maybe a new city."
The second volume promised to be released later this year and will include a 10 minute version Dire Straits' first single, "Sultan of Swing".
Anyway, it seems that the band's primary fan base are in Mexico, but I think most of the songs on this new album are in English, they have more international appeal.
I thought "Beatle Suit & Purple Boots" was very catchy, but instrumentals like "Bona's Psychedelic Breakfast" seems to only serve as transitional arcs. As Thulin described this as a musical journey, I would have to agree. Destination "JAJAJA" is my favorite location, it sounds like a big cultural-clash party big city.
Check out the video for "JAJAJA", the audio is slightly different at the end when his head goes into the pot. It is directed by Volver:
Also, judging from the various live photographs of the band, they seem like a pretty wild band, especially Thulin, who seems to like to undress on stage. It's too bad I do not see any live concert listing as of this writing.
I couldn't find any listing for Nevergreens Vol 1 online, so I'm assuming it's in limited release. According to the band's label, siliconcarne.com.mx: "la primera mitad de 2008" (first half of 2008). You'll notice that Silicon Carne is also currently the home of my favorite Stereo Total[W♥M] in Mexico.
Links:
www.myspace.com/losfancyfree
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06/20/08 Greek Theater Berkeley, CA*
See Also
06/22/08 Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA* 06/26/08 Central Park Summerstage NY* 06/28/08 Merriweather Columbia, MD* 07/07/08 Ottawa BluesFest Ottawa, Canada* 07/11/08 Balaton Sound Zamardi, Hungary* 07/11/08 Kalamitsi Thessaloniki* 07/12/08 Petra Open Air Theater Athens* 07/24/08 Nice Jazz Festival Nice, France* 08/01/08 Big Chill Festival United Kingdom* * with Federico Aubele |
Instead of cramming all of my "Spanish Summer" articles, I will be spreading them out in the next few days. Here's the first one, which I had written nearly two months ago, I had to just go in and make some updates:
Argentinian singer/songwriter, Natalia Clavier is releasing her album Nectar next Tuesday. Fans of world, jazz, and trip-hop would love this Spanish album.
How Nectar came into existence was that she was helping fellow Argentinian Federico Aubele record his album Panamericana for ESL Music in Washington DC. She met Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation and gave him a ten track demo that she recorded with Aubele's help. Hilton loved it so much that he pulled some strings and had ESL sign her right away.
I don't have her demos, but if it sounds anything like the finished Nectar album, I can see why Hilton was very excited about it.
Most of the songs demonstrate Clavier's beautiful voice, especially on her version of legendary Argentinian folk singer Atahualpa Yupanqui's "Tu Que Puedes Veulvete". I felt most of the songs were a bit loungey, but backed with typically trip-hop elements. Check out my easily favorite track "No Volvera".
Since yo no hablo ingles, I couldn't tell you what these songs are about. What I can tell you is that Clavier's voice is really gorgeous and the music backing her up are a combination of both organic and artificial sources. Here are some quick notes on the songs I really enjoyed: "El Arbol" (note record scratching), "Azul" (orchestra with dance beats), "Confusion" (pianos & low cello bass; sad tones), and "Tiempo" (just really liked this one).
It looks like she'll be doing some US & UK dates with Federico Aubele. Nectar will be out this Tuesday, June 10th, you can pre-order the album on ESL Music.
I have a ton of news I need to get to, but obviously still playing catchup because of my illness from last week. As I have previously mentioned, many of these news items can be found on our press.weheartmusic.com website, so if you have music-related announcements, please let me know, maybe even twitter me?
First off, is Stereo Total return to the USA for one BBQ show!. This is for May 31st, in Brooklyn, NY. And if I lived in New York, I would be out all the time... especially because everyone seems to tour and/or are in New York. Plus, I love Stereo Total!
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I don't normally announce other people's contests, but I felt this one is too good to pass up: Win a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus Terabyte Hard Drive. It is for a Terabyte drive from Maxtor. As you know, my HD is fast depleting, so I entered into this contest. Don't worry, I never win at these things anyway, so I thought perhaps you guys might have a better luck at it.
What makes his contest music-related is that it includes MP3s and videos (?) and music content from The Sickest Kids, Be Your Own Pet[W♥M], Between The Trees, Story of the Year[W♥M], Black Gold, etc.
Winners will be contacted the week of June 9th from www.thesyn.com/blog.
Jason is reviewing Samantha Crain's album, The Confiscation, so I thought you might want to check out Samantha Crain - "The Confiscation," a music novella, out July 22 on Ramseur Records.
Reading her mini biography, it seems that she's a Native American folk singer, so the obvious "earthy and spiritual" was used to describe her music.
It should be interesting to read the review and hear some of her music here.
She's also doing a ton of tour dates, so head over to her myspace for the latest information.
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Also, a few brief mentions: Grupo Fantasma Serves Up Sonidos Gold For June 17th Release and Bad Religion to Release New Maps of Hell (Deluxe Edition) on July 8th.
These titles are pretty self-explanatory. It seems like we just reviewed Grupo Fantasma's Comes Alive, but this new CD, Sonidos Gold, is a studio album with new material.
From my brief listen to this new album, it's really good, with a fusion of latin and dance/pop music.
Also, briefly, my favorite, Bad Religion is re-releasing New Maps of Hell, in a "deluxe edition". This is pretty cool, considering that this legendary punk band have never released any deluxe or repackaged their albums before.
I will assign someone to review their album, but in the meantime, read my previous article on Bad Religion.
Links:
weheartmusic.com
Oliver Urdaneta currently has one of the hottest song in the blogsverse, "Por qué no te callas".
If you haven't heard about this phenomenon, it's from a televised conference between Latin American, Portuguese, Spanish, and Andorran leaders, in Chile.
Hugo Chavez kept interupting Spanish Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero
(despite Chavez's mic was turned off) and eventually lead to Spain's
King Juan Carlos telling the Venezuelan leader "Why don't you shut
up".
This little statement instantly became a huge ringtone hit, generating about 1.5m euros practically overnight.[1]
It wasn't long before mashups and this song by Oliver Urdaneta appearing on the internet.
So there's little information about this guy, I don't think he's even released music (at least in the traditional album releases). I think he's also currently living in Italy since 2005. You can read more about him on es.wikipedia.org and perhaps someone can translate his biography for me (but only if it's interesting).
Here's the chorus:[2]
Por eso se oye con afán, ¿Por qué no te callas?
y siempre te recordaran, ¿Por qué no te callas?
la gente canta con ardor, ¿Por qué no te callas?
el rey está cambiando su color, callado estás mejor
Urdaneta's music video for "Por qué no te callas" have generated over 1.5 million views on youtube, and you can download the MP3 version off his website.
11/24/2007 08:44:38
vu
my♥posts
www.olivercontigo.com
| Cristina wrote: Nov 24, 2007 7:10 PM |
[this is good] Hahaha. I saw the awful video on Youtube the other day.
The composer's biography is a bit dull. He started his singing at a vocal school as a child. He competed in regional and national contests. He belonged to a couple of bands, then released a solo cd. He toured all-over Latin America and the US. In 2003, he wrote the theme song to a Venezuelan soap opera. It became a hit in Venezuela and parts of Europe. In 2005, singles from Simplemente Oliver topped the Italian charts and were club hits in other Euro countries. After Chavez made a fool of himself for the millionth time, Urdaneta wrote this song to the tune of "Y Viva España". He'd like to write songs in as many styles as possible. His last release featured Bachata, Salsa, Reggaeton, Cha Cha Cha and Balada compositions. And, he can dance, too!
BTW, Chavez was interrupting the current prime minister, Rodríguez Zapatero, to badmouth the former one Aznar.
The story that was told to me[1] about Buena Vista Social Club is that this was a very famous and important album. The CD was largely organized by a famous musician, Ry Cooder, basically assembled all these musicians that used to perform at the members-only Buena Vista Social Club to record on this 1997 album.
So after listening to this album several times now, I've decided to look up more information on the album. This album was recorded in just six days, this was a huge task, considering the size of all the musicians involved.
The album have sold more than five million copies, won a Grammy in 1998, and is listed in Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums of All Time[2].
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Footnotes
[1] Conversation with Dave [2] Link: rollingstone.com [3] Link: wikipedia.org Please note that I have made some minor improvements to W♥M Directory. There were 88 entries for June, so it's taking me a long time to index that month. |
Although all the songs are worth checking out, I have settled for "El Cuarto de Tula". I think it means a quarter of Tula (an ancient Mexican city). Originally the song was composed by Luis Marquetti in 1945. This new recorded version is sung by Eliades Ochoa. The section where Ibrahim Ferrer and Manuel Licea steps in to help singer, I've read are mostly improvised[3].
Please note our previous entry for Rhythms del Mundo.
August 25, 2007 3:50 PM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.nonesuch.com
BZ Jam is from Vancouver, Canada, but his rap style is rooted in his Greek heritage. He's released three LPs: Welcome to Honkysville (1993), It Ain't Greek to Me (2002), and My Big Phat Greek... (2006).
Even if some may say that it's just a novelty act, you have to admit it's pretty cool to hear someone rap in Greek or even hear traditional Greek instruments such as the bouzouki!
I'm not an expert in religious stories, but obviously this song is in reference to the Bible story. The story is about how a unified mankind decided to build a tower to reach the heavens. God was angry at their arrogance and so he made all the Babylonians speak with a different language, thus preventing them from finishing the tower. For some reason, I've always thought God made the tower collapse?
What's kind of cool about the BZ Jam song, is that it's sung in English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian, and, least of all, Greek. I have no idea what the rest of the song is saying as I only understand the English section... although I'm almost certain I heard "Ricky Martin" in the Spanish section of the song.
Keeping the spirit of Barcelona alive for another post (although dropping the Swedish connection), I introduce you to the flamenco stylings of Barcelona-based, Ojos de Brujo. To my shame, I know a lot less Spanish than GW Bush. Fortunately, I know a lot more Spanish speaking folks than him so I can always get a rough translation from somewhere. The translation of the band's name is Eyes of the Wizard (provided by Cristina).
Ojos de Brujo's sound is heavily soaked in flamenco and an old-school gypsy vibe. Their latest album, Techari means free and there is plenty of freedom contained in their music. Mix the occasional hip-hop flavouring with a dash of sampling and you have a powerful cocktail of music destined to released the latin lover in lodged deep within your soul.
They released their first album, 'Vengue' (a gypsy word for the energy that flows through life) in 1999. Since then they have grown from strengthen to strengthen. Their follow-up album, Bari, was released in 2002. However it was the most recent release, Techari, which has been met with commercial and critical success. - Ryan
Their albums are available in the world music section of most music stores, their online store, itunes, emusic, Amazon UK and Amazon USA.
Preview more of their music on their website, myspace and at last.fm.
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