Artists
who's who and who's doing what?Kevin Johansen + The Nada
- country:Argentina
- style(s):Latin Songwriter
- label:Sony
- artist submitted by:
Born in Alaska and raised in Argentina, the bilingual singer-songwriter is a natural poster child of a new cultural order. I'm fully Spanglish, says Johansen, to me English and Spanish are one language. Whatever comes out, comes out.
An inexhaustible genre fusionist, in the vein of Franco-Spanish troubadour Manu Chao, David Byrne or Mexico's Cafe Tacuba, Johansen seamlessly blends styles (blues and country, reggae, salsa, tango and candombe, chanson and so on) as easily as he switches between languages. The outcome of this is what he calls cumbia flamenco, Celtic sambarera, popklore and zydeco rush. Kevin's lyrics, which he presents in a wonderfully husky, low voice, are full of references and double entendres, as is the music itself - which mixes guitars and glockenspiel, saxophone and strings as well as drums and flute.
Johansen is at the forefront of the self-proclaimed Subtropicalista movement. Like the original Tropicalistas - Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, among others - who radicalized Brazilian music in the 1960s and '70s, the Subtropicalistas, including Brazilian musician Paulinho Moska and Uruguay's Jorge Drexler, aim to sway audiences away from La Vida Loca-style tunes and introduce more sophisticated Latino music to a broader audience.
Links
Images
