The Toba are an indigenous group from Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. The Argentian band Tonolec plays tribute to them by mixing some of their traditional songs with Electronic music, producing one of the most inspiring fusions I've heard recently.
Charo Bogarín, the singer, has Guaraní origins. She formed with Diego Perez the band Tonolec in 2002. In 2005 they released their first album, named after the band.
The vibrant sound of the Colombian bagpipes (or gaita, if you prefer that name) and the voice of Malpelo, a traditional singer from Cartagena and the lead voice of this band, are the elements that I first loved from Curupira. Their wild sound with a touch of rock guitars has made them one of the pioneers of the contemporary folk movement in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.
Created by Juan Sebastián Monsalve, this group has incorporated rhythms from almost all the Colombian regions: the coasts, the Amazon and Orinoco. Its name means ‘jungle spirit’ in Ticuna language. Curupira made its debut with the following song, El Borojó, a fabulous piece about a fruit famous for its use to increase the sexual appetite.
After an intense search through the music from Guyana for several days, Adrian Dutchin came to me as a surprise with a beautiful Christmas song featured in Guyana Music Arts blog. Upon a little internet investigation, I knew this was the Guyanese artists I was looking for. A clever mix of soca rhythms, a very popular style in this country, with influences from R&B and chutney.
At the age of 22, he released his first album titled No limits, after his participation in several bands, including one called Seven which was dissolved. Recently, in 2009, he released an album called Finally. Dutchin was also nominated to the 2009 Accolade awards, nomination which, according to Guayana Music Arts, excited this talented artist. With Adrian Dutchin, Sound Energy Flux now has music from all the South American countries! Yaaayy! :D
Ukamau y ke has been one of my favorite bands lately. Their lyrics denounce social injustice and economic inequality in Bolivia. Their fusion of hip hop with Andean folk music has, likewise, a social reason behind it, namely, the highlighting of the Bolivian culture and heritage, which is slowly getting lost due to the dominance of foreign interests in the media.
In an unfortunate event, Abraham Bojorquez, Ukamau y ke's founder, recently passed away being only 26 years old in a vehicular accident. Abraham headed the Wayna rap movement, which is, in my opinion, one of the most original things that has happened to Latin American hip hop, featuring rapping in Aymara, a native Bolivian language, dressing with traditional Bolivian clothes (as opposed to the American hip hop clothing) and, of course, mixing traditional folk melodies with rap.
It all starts when four friends from Lima who travelled to different parts of the world, Peru, Spain, UK and China, and lived there for many years, returned to Peru to make a musical experiment previously unheard of in their country: Afro-Peruvian rhythms are mixed with dub and other electronic music genres.
Cumbancha rightly describe their music as a search for the common ground between past and future, between tradition and innovation:
Their efforts have also helped bridge the divide between the Peruvian mainstream and the Afro-Peruvian community, a minority population that has struggled against discrimination and the threat of cultural dissolution for generations.
While their sound is futuristic and cutting-edge, the roots of Novalima's music stretch back hundreds of years to the times of slavery and Spanish colonial rule.
Today we are celebrating our 100th post in Sound Energy Flux. For this special occasion we want to talk about one of our most loved singers, a figure that has greatly influenced the Colombian rock scene.
Andrea Echeverry used to be an artist who worked in ceramics. She studied arts and made post-graduate studies at the School of Art and Design in Plymouth, UK. But in 1990, when she joined a band called Delia y Los aminoácidos, she started an unexpectedly prolific career as a singer. In 1992, this band turned into Aterciopelados, the most innovative rock band of Colombia and Latin America.
Andrea hasn’t been the typical hot female pop singer. The way she dresses has always been recognized for its extravagance. The strength of her voice, her sincere lyrics and her natural attitude, oppossed to the pop star stereotype, have captivated people and critics around the world.
Her solo album, a tribute to motherhood, was recorded in 2006 after the birth of her first daughter, Milagros. This album, whose lyrics are primarily about maternal feelings, contains the song Lactochampeta, an ode to lactation and a lullaby to her baby.
The following song is an adaptation of Canción Protesta, composed by Andrea. It was performed by various artists who come from many countries around the world, and was part of a campaign of Amnesty International against the impunity in human rights violations.
The following song comes from their sixth studio album, Roots. This album masterfully continued what Sepultura had started in Chaos A.D 3 years earlier, namely, an experimentation with the Brazilian music rhythms that were as far as inviting Carlinhos Brown, a popular Brazilian musician previously featured in this blog, to participate in the co-authoring and vocals of the following song, titled Ratamahatta.
Dancehall Crew is a good example of the Surinamese authenticity. I don’t recommend you to watch the following video if you are easily impressed, since it contains some violent images. The structure of the song is, however, interesting. It starts with one rhythm and, all of a sudden, it turns into another one, in a different tempo. The same thing happens several times during the song. This is something you don’t see often in Reggae music!
The strength of some tango lyrics has been an enigma for me. I have never understood the Lunfardo, but I have a feeling that the lyrics say something about the people you can find on the streets and their lives. The following song of Daniel Melingo is more understandable to me. That strange slang is used less but preserves that melancholic and vigorous energy that made me feel attracted to the urban nature of tango:
The bizarre lyrics of Melingo tell stories about the underworld of the city of Buenos Aires: the city of the drug addicts, the prostitutes or the criminals, with a touch of black humor and updated to our times.
Daniel Melingo, who was a member of the band ‘Los abuelos de la nada’, is nowadays a poet of tango who sings about the lives of marginal people. The following song, included in his last album ‘Maldito tango’ is an example of his particular style and a tribute to the old poets of Lunfardo slang.
The afroperuvian music had been for many years an unknown heritage that was hidden behind the traditional andean music. But in 1995, when David Byrne discovered Susana Baca’s talent, the sounds of instruments like the peruvian cajón were shown to the world, in the disc ‘El alma del Perú Negro’, edited by Luaka Bop, the record label of Byrne.
Born in Chorrillos, the black neighborhood of Lima, Susana Baca grew up in an atmosphere with a high musical richness. Her father was a guitarist, and her aunts sang with the style of Aretha Franklin. Now Susana, a descendant of black and indigenous people, is considered the most important singer of Peru, and the heiress of Chabuca Granda, a legend of the afroperuvian song.
Married with the sociologist Ricardo Pereira, Susana Baca has dedicated her life to the research of the afroperuvian music with him. They published the book ‘El fuego y el agua’, where they included testimonies and documents of this ethnic group and its musical legacy.
The following song, titled “Nuestro juramento” (Our promise) talks about a promise of love that lasts beyond death. The video is from a biographical movie about Jaramillo, where his role is played by his son Julio Jaramillo Sanchez.
His broad knowledge of music, allowed him to make compositions that ranged from baroque to folk music arrangements. The following work, interpreted by the Colombian guitarist Fernando Ramirez, is one of the finest arpeggio studies for guitar.
Many world-class guitarists were fans of Barrios, with Andrés Segovia, David Russell and John Williams among them. John Williams, who plays the piece Choro da saudade in the following video, said of Barrios:
As a guitarist/composer, Barrios is the best of the lot, regardless of era. His music is better formed, it's more poetic, it's more everything! And it's more of all those things in a timeless way.
Their most popular song is, however, “Llorando se fue”. This song reached international fame when the French band Kaoma adapted it to caporal rhythm without authorization, peaking at the singles charts worldwide for several weeks. A successful lawsuit was filed by Los Kjarkas, for which Kaoma had to share some of their earnings with them.
Afterwards, Brown, currently one of the most prolific brazilian musicians, created the Pracatum Popular Musical School, a conservatory that has helped boys and girls from poor ghettos. Carlinhos is not a conventional music star. In fact, he never abandoned his original neighborhood, and although he is a successful singer and percussionist, he still lives there and has built a recording studio and an a concert hall.
Brown, who has performed with bands like Sepultura, or artists like Caetano Veloso, was in the 90's the director of Timbalada, a group of 100 singers and percussionists. Later, he sang as soloist and recorded this song, A namorada, one of his best known hits. This song reminds me the music that was put on the radio when I was 10 years old.
When a journalist asked the members of Chocquibtown (Chocó, Quibdó, Town) how could they define their music, they answered: 'We are the folk for the new generations'. Chocquibtown, is a hip hop band that mixes different elements from the pacific region of Colombia (like marimba de chonta, tambora, and the singing of the cantaoras from Chocó) with rap music. This band, based on Quibdó, Colombia, is formed by the MC's 'Tostao' (Carlos Valencia), 'Goyo' (Gloria Ramírez) and Slow (Miguel Ramírez).
This first video is from the song ' Somos Pacifico', maybe one of the best known songs from Chocquibtown, and was filmed in Condoto, Chocó. The lyrics are about being black and born in this town, which is the poorest of Colombia.
The second song, one of their first recordings made with a colombian reggae band, Kilimanjahro, is a cover from 'La palma del chontaduro' of Peregoyo y su combo Vacana, a traditional group from Chocó. This song is barely known, even to some of the Chocquibtown fans.
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