- country:Spain
- region:Catalonia
- style(s):Pop, Roots
- label:MUNDO ZURDO/EMI SPAI
- artist posted by:Poder Latino
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What is natural is the mix. When, in 1997, Macaco, The Mad Monkey, decided to start a project as cosmopolitan as their city, the intuition was that the future would pass through a multicultural dialogue, for the communion of words and sounds, of aromas and smells, of tastes and flavours. Seven years and two albums later, time has proved it to be so and, therefore, the third album, “Entre raíces y antenas” (between roots and antennas) (Mundo Zurdo-EMI, 2004), seeks a new goal: to connect the old (the root) and the modern (the antenna) in a hallucinating round trip of space and time. Although it could have happened in Rio de Janeiro, New York, Caracas, Yaoundé or any other metropolis so prone to meetings, it happened in Barcelona.
Without pauses or haste, Macaco has founded its own publishers (El Murmullo) and its own label, Mundo Zurdo, to give us this album, which is two, “Entre raíces y antenas”, and that is worth more, all have to be heard to patent an undoubtedly unique style.
The first of them, “De la raíz a la antena”(from root to antenna), is a disc of band, sharp, crude and powerful. One of those recorded in two takes, without pauses, editing or regrets. But with musicians who know each other and listen to each other, achieving that most appreciated treasure: the groove, el camine, el soniquete, la cozinha... Everywhere in the world it has a name, but the name is not important: That is what makes music a universal language, the metaphor of the rhythm, in this case in first place. The second to make it into good songs with verses and choruses, because that has always been Macaco’s way, a route that sees no frontiers, where elements of hip-hop (scratches), traditional Brazilian instruments (zurdos) or choruses mixed with Latin groove all have their place.
The second has been produced in reverse, “De la antena a la raíz” (from antenna to root). A great small disk, conceived in El Murmullo, a home studio where electronics are done by hand. Rain drops set the basic rhythm, the sound of women cleaning the fish in Cameroon marking the beat, voices scratched in real time … Basses, double basses, guitars, pianos, rhymes and songs that are projected outwards looking to be transmitted and picked up by a receiver. Communication in its pure state.
“Entre raíces y antenas” is one of the most passionate adventures of contemporary pop music, without limiting signs or “made in” stickers because Macaco has always been an international project. What we are really talking about is the now of a band combining talent and the experience of a series of musicians from Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and, of course, Spain.
The journey begins now but the search for the roots does not stop and, in the not too distant future, it will take us to Mother Africa. To be continued …