In Austin wherever you turn you can find awesome new musical talent. Home town favorites Vallejo have a solid track record of producing quality live performances and stellar music. Though these guys really know how to rock it’s difficult to label them with but one genre–they flirt with reggae in, “Temporary Thing” but manage to lace in the fuzzy, growling rock guitar that is signature Vallejo. They stay true to their world music roots with classic Latino rhythms but infuse every song with enough rock grit to put Vallejo in a category all their own.
This year’s Coachella Music Festival will April 16-18th. The three day line up was announced and there are heavy hitters all over the list. The line up includes names like Spoon, Jay-Z, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Thom Yorke and more. For complete details and the full line up, visit www.coachella.com.
Ocote Soul Sounds come from the creative musical minds of Adrian Quesada (Brownout, Grupo Fantasma) and Martin Perna (Antibalas). They somehow found each other despite coming from distinctly different backgrounds and regions of the country. They manage to put together a crew of other talented musicians to form Ocote Soul Sounds. Ocote’s sound in a “coconut-shell" is Afro-Latin funk mixed with a dash of soul and jazz. It makes sense when you consider who each member plays with regularly.
Funky Bass lines, horns, keys, spacey guitar riffs, timbales, organ…they all come together to create the Austin funk orchestra known as Brownout. Whether it is in English or Spanish, Brownout is funky either way you look at it. Nothing proves Brownout’s power to funk you up better than their new album, Aguilas y Cobras.
Mexican Institute of Sound’s (MIS) latest album is titled Soy Sauce. Right away the album begins with what MIS is known for and does best…blending traditional Mexican music with electronica genius. “Cumbia” marries the electronic sounds of Moby with traditional music of Mexico. One could not help but dance or nod your head to the rhythm Lara created. Play it for abuela and watch her dance.
What I found disappointing was that there weren’t more tracks as danceable as “Cumbia” other than “Yo Digo Baila”. Literally translated as “I Say Dance”, it is the quintessential dance club track for DJs to spin and remix. The banda horn samples combined with electric synthesized beats is an out of the box combination for most, but it is probably what Lara hears in his head while walking the streets of D.F. (Mexico City).
Many will be caught off guard with “Sinfonia Agridulce”, MIS’s mariachi cover of The Verve’s epic smash single, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. The violins sounds of The Verve are replaced with trumpets of course, accompanied by the Spanish guitar and a bajo sexto. Never in my life did I ever think I’d be throwing a grito to “Bitter Sweet Symphony”.
On Soy Sauce, Lara once again demonstrates that hears music in a way the rest of do not. He has already demonstrated this twice before on MIS’s previous albums, Pinata and Mejico Maxico. Listen to Mexican Institute of Sound and you will see why heavy hitters like The Beastie Boys MC, Ad Rock, had to throw down some Soy Sauce of his own, remixing his own version of “Alocatel”.
If you are in Austin, be sure and check out one of MIS’s few U.S. appearances in May at this year’s second annual Pachanga Fest
- Posted on 04.08.2009 By Ian Morales
- Tags: Album Review, DJ, electronic, latin, Latin Alternative, Latin Music, Mariachi, Mexican Music, MIS, Nacional Records, Pachanga Fest, the verve
