No record reviews today, but I would like to point you to a Mexican blog/magazine who cover Rock-In-Opposition, Avant-Prog and Krautrock and freaky art, all written in Spanish, called Revista Bastardo. They’re a new name to me, but certainly one worth following.
Mexico
Christophe Rieger/H.J. Ayala – Mexican Spleen
Longtime friend of the blog Hector Javier Ayala collaborates with saxophonist Christophe Rieger to produce a slow, languid jazz album which has reference points in spaghetti western soundtracks and bossa nova, as well a touch of music from Mexico.
Los Camperos de Valles – El ave de mi soñar: Mexican Sones Huastecos
Los Camperos de Valles are Huastecan musicians and are considered to be national treasures in their native Mexico. This album, released by Smithsonian-Folkways, serves as a great introduction to the sound of son huasteco.
Ophtalmologist – Julius Vernus Explorator
It’s quite a rare thing for music titles, especially instrumental tracks, to actually match the music produced. A case in point was a four-album noise release whose name I happily forgot trying to reference a classic of literature. No need to embarrass the artist or the writer, but it seemed Continue Reading
Yamila – Visions
Mexican composer Yamila produces music similar to Rock-In-Opposition legends like Art Zoyd, Univers Zéro and fellow countrymen Decibel. The music is heavy, brooding, and dense. From her label, Umor Rex’s Bandcamp site: “Her voice and music –sometimes torn and others buoyant– could resemble the score for a biblical passage (ie. Continue Reading
A Shelter In The Desert – Pequeñas Hiroshimas
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we present you a new post-rock band out of Mexico City called A Shelter In The Desert. The band’s sound incorporates a lot of shoegaze sounds and has a cinematic vibe to it. Impressive, and worth exploring.
[Article] In mid-’60s Yugoslavia, mariachi music was really popular
Pablo Esparza of The World website writes on one of the oddest phenomena which happened during the heyday of Yugoslavia – the Yu-Mex scene, complete with charro costumes.
H.J. Ayala – Le Corps Sacré
This is the second guitar-based album we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing this week. This one comes from Mexican-French guitarist Hector (H.J.) Ayala who works out of Strasbourg, France. The album is a gentle, twangy, pleasantly meandering collection of tones which belong to a film which has not yet been Continue Reading
Muva – Yum Cháak
Mexico’s new music scene is criminally underrated, which is a shame considering the immense talent hidden there. Yes, of course, we love boleros, the folk songs out of Veracruz and Yucatan, and the insanely good psychedelic music of the 1960s and 1970s, the Rock-In-Opposition of bands like Nazca, Decibel and Continue Reading
Harald Grosskopf & Ramón Amezcua – Quetzalkrautl
¡Demasiado kosmiche…! Two absolute legends in electronic music grace these pages with a combination whose name cracks me up, but whose music entinces. Ramón Amezcua is best known under his nom de plume Bostich and is known as the godfather of the Nortec scene which combines hard electronic music with Continue Reading