Its Cinqo de Mayo. You’re in college. You’re an indie hipster. You live in Maine. Its been years since you’ve had anything to cheer about, at least in the sonic sense, on this day of international celebration. Sure, there’s the Corona, oversized sombreros and general unproductive work ethic that saturates this holiday, but where are the comforting retro piano synths, super-mario sampled video game blips, and garage-metal strewn studio production qualities that underground kids have grown to love? Where’s the Mexican love for all things indie? Has the eternally enlightened independent music scene been stifled by the oppressive mariachi conglomerates that are so numerous across the southern border?
Chalino Sanchez must have missed this memo. Or maybe it’s because he’s blind and cant read that this Latin American indie pioneer has been able to blaze his own path in a music culture that’s overwhelmed with accordions and wooden baby rattles. While his most recent album, 15 Exitos 15, has the façade of a traditional Mexican folk album, this record proves to be more burrito than open-faced quesadilla. Unwrap the soft tortilla shell of his opening track, “Nieves de Enero,” and any avid listener will pick up on the multi-layered vocal/elephant horn fusion that marks his avant-garde style. Sanchez develops this sound throughout his album with electronic touches that lie just beneath the auditory landscape. “El Pavido Navido,” for example, is sung entirely by a robot that Sanchez built in his basement with scrap metal he found from a nearby ironworks factory. The album slows down a touch towards the end, but manages to hold strong to its independent roots with “Una Tarde” - Sanchez’s ode to the softer side of indie, displaying a magnificent interplay of rambling guitar and samples from a children’s piñata-smashing party that Sanchez took himself. Its Sanchez’s variety of techniques that gives his album so much richness. He provides the beans, the rice, AND the guacamole.
For those college hipsters in Maine, this cinqo de mayo you can leave the mariachi playlists on your OTHER iPod nano. Sanchez’s “15 Exitos 15” is all you’ll need this holiday. Well, a little cerveza couldn’t hurt.
REVIEW: 8.3
Chalino Sanchez must have missed this memo. Or maybe it’s because he’s blind and cant read that this Latin American indie pioneer has been able to blaze his own path in a music culture that’s overwhelmed with accordions and wooden baby rattles. While his most recent album, 15 Exitos 15, has the façade of a traditional Mexican folk album, this record proves to be more burrito than open-faced quesadilla. Unwrap the soft tortilla shell of his opening track, “Nieves de Enero,” and any avid listener will pick up on the multi-layered vocal/elephant horn fusion that marks his avant-garde style. Sanchez develops this sound throughout his album with electronic touches that lie just beneath the auditory landscape. “El Pavido Navido,” for example, is sung entirely by a robot that Sanchez built in his basement with scrap metal he found from a nearby ironworks factory. The album slows down a touch towards the end, but manages to hold strong to its independent roots with “Una Tarde” - Sanchez’s ode to the softer side of indie, displaying a magnificent interplay of rambling guitar and samples from a children’s piñata-smashing party that Sanchez took himself. Its Sanchez’s variety of techniques that gives his album so much richness. He provides the beans, the rice, AND the guacamole.
For those college hipsters in Maine, this cinqo de mayo you can leave the mariachi playlists on your OTHER iPod nano. Sanchez’s “15 Exitos 15” is all you’ll need this holiday. Well, a little cerveza couldn’t hurt.
REVIEW: 8.3
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