Funk alchemy (11.27.2009)

Read original entry in Spanish.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

I've found a reason for the nostalgic fans of Willie Crook and the Funky Torinos to comfort themselves: there exists Reiband, who opened the Cool Funky Night on Friday 27th at Kimia, Buenos Aires. They funked wonderfully around the crispy groove of Nicolás Grillo's bass guitar and the drums of Nico Ortega, a remarkable tempo keeper who gives the exact intensity and timing to each one of his beats as well as to syncopation. In "Spirit", the starting song, Grillo shared the bright with the wind section: Kidory's trumpet and Juan Iraeta's saxo. He stood out as he transmitted the urgency of "Enjoy the funk" (and in the ending solo too), and when he sustained the groove solidly at "Waiting" (a piece with a characteristic, vibrant leit motiv). The keyboards of Mariano Gall played a prominent role in the rythm of "Like a devil", same as they did a little later, in conjunction with the trumpet, in the melody and atmospheres of "Lonely heart". The frontman Leo Ortega, singer, guitar player and author of both music and lyrics of the band's songs (most of them in English), transformed his usually quite and reflexive off-stage image and on stage he seemed to be on fire, and sang with his guts. At times, his electro-acoustic guitar and the keyboards snaked together across the rythmical pattern to paint atmospheres of sensitive beauty. Then they covered "Heroína", and it was the time to introduce the band. One by one, the players took the opportunity to show their skills. When introduced by Kidory, Leo provoked the audience ("¿are you ready for me?"), and the band exploded in the final segment of Sumo's song.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

Then it was the turn of Suprafónicos. From the very moment he jumped onto stage, the frontman and singer Felipe Herrera captured the audience with his charisma. The timbre, volume and cleanness of his voice made it neatly override  the sound of the instruments. He sings with nice musical sense, handles soul modulations well, and conveys the message in the lyrics (in Spanish) with clarity. His body dynamics, in the hyperactive and careless hip hop style, were a little constrained at Kimia's small and a bit too crowded stage. Band's line up includes keyboardist Nano Novello, bass guitar player Alan Ballan, guitar player Peter Akselrad and drummer Luis Burgio. They started with something like a hip-hop-biased Prince sound, became more latin in "Enciéndelo", turned to a white-soul-of-the-90s sound in "En el aire". Embroidered guitars with wah-wah, flangers, well assembled support vocals, keyboards that created integrating atmospheres or chopped to join the rythm base and, more than anything else, plenty of rythm: startled rythm, syncopated rythm, dancing rythm. Ingredients of an Argetinean funk that seduced the audience.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

The closing act was Pocketeers, with a selection of international  funk, disco, rock and pop songs. Armed with wireless mics, Hernán Albetoni, Carolina Rubiales and Valeria Nicali, the vocal trio of the band, stepped down from stage and wandered in front of and across the audience. This somewhat dizzy deployment did not mess the voices, which sounded full and perfectly assembled or alternated. The Poketeers covered "The power of love" (Celine Dion), "Superstition" (Wonder), "Long train Running" (Doobie Bros), "Born to be wild" (Bonfire... Stepenwolf's milestone), "Love rears its ugly head" (Living Colour), "Easy" (Faith no more) "I touch myself" plus "Like a virgin" (Steinberg-Kelly), "Hot Stuff" plus "Bad Girls" (Donna Summer), and "You shook me all night long" (AC/DC). On stage, Mauro Miguez took the center of the scene and made of the sound of his bass guitar the mainstream of the musical flood that the Pocketeers conveyed to the public. Drummer Krlos Stefanizzi was an engine who displayed techniques from different musical styles... even punky rolls and machine-guns. Pablo Valla's guitar was solvent all across the broad range of stylistic and functional resources the band's repertoir demanded from him. The keyboards provided orchestral breadth. Pocketeers finished with "Tri-funk". The closeness between audience and artists and the quality of the performers could overcome the uneasy acoustics of the place, and made it possible to complete a high impact, enjoyable show.
Back to The Shuttle's website.

Related links:
Reiband's website, myspace and facebook;
Suprafonicos's website, myspace and facebook;
Pocketeers's website, myspace and facebook.

Nunca Taxi at Libario bar (11.22.2009)

Read original entry in Spanish.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

Literally, "Nunca Taxi" means "never been a cab", a phrase often used when selling a car. At Libario bar, Buenos Aires, lining up Agustín Cosovschi, Esteban Salonia, Gustavo Váter and Sebastián Briganti, the NTs revealed that their music is making a quite interesting turn. A funky rythm base prevails now in both new creations and updated versions of earlier songs from their first EP "A las flores". Váter's bass guitar plays a protagonic role there, and Briganti displays the urgent beat of his lively bass-and-snare-drum work. A constant and grungie guitar strumming by Agustín and Esteban completes the band's original new sound. When away from the rythm base, Esteban's guitar usually undertakes the solos and Agustín's guitar the riffs and the phrases. In such environment, Agustín's leading vocals become more emphatic as he tells the lyrics' story with conviction.

Their performance at Libario, a couple of days after they qualified to the semifinals of the Estudio Urbano's "Bandas al Aire" radio contest, suggested that today two streams converge into NT's musical identity: the funky one ―that of the new songs or new versions― and the earlier EP's one ―the one they have been publicizing so far. Most visibly, NT's studio recordings reveal influences from Luis Alberto Spinetta and The Beatles. However, it would be unfair to limit parenthood just to those two names: traces of a broad range of illustrious predecessors can be found in the genetic map of these new artists. Agustín's voice modulations evoke "Flaco" Spinetta himself, Vox Dei, Arco Iris, and somehow, for sure, The Beatles. His voice and Esteban's match well in balanced vocal arrays.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

Agustín remarks: "Actually, our music has at least three major affluents. The Beatles, Spinetta, the indie rock in the styles of Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes and other post-punk influences." On the Beatles side, Agustín mentions their songs 'Pequeño Percance' (with a Magical Mistery Tour flavour, one which Esteban sang McCartney-style at Libario), 'Perro Sebastián' (festive although slightly nostalgic), and 'Perfume'. Among the Spinetta-style songs, he points out 'A las flores' (it truly sounds Spinetta-like on the EP, with Esteban playing a jazzy guitar solo, but at Libario it was one of the songs that commanded the funk revolt), 'Rito Inicial', and 'Jazmín'. And among the indie rock-post punk themes, he quotes 'Falta poco' and 'Lucy' (the rockiest one, often the main course in Nunca Taxi's shows). "Besides", he says, "there are two funkier songs that I'd rather place, however, at the roots of Soda Stereo: 'Vuelto Pájaro', because I feel it's poppier, and 'La Mesa Verde', because I composed it when I was 17, and I used to listen a lot of Soda at that age."

He recognizes mutations too. "It wasn't our purpose to make a new version of none of the songs, but at the same time we are re-creating everything. We started to play with more funk and I took advange of my new Fender Telecaster to change my sound and play always with mid gain. So now I focus on only two sounds: a distorted, mid-gain sound, and a cleaner one I use on a spot basis. In part, that's why the songs sound rockier. We looked for a brit indie rock sound, we wanted to get closer to the post-punk and new wave sound. To get that, Vater often uses the pick and I benefit from the tin-like voice of the new Telecaster".

"La mesa verde" and "Lucy" make part of the single the NTs are now recording to document the band's new aesthetics. It will soon be listened at their myspace page.
Back to The Shuttle's website.

Related links: NT at myspace, NT at facebook and a video by NT.

The Chevy Rockets at ND/Ateneo Theatre

Back to The Shuttle's website.

On October 15, 2009, the Chevy Rockets performed at ND/Ateneo Theatre of Buenos Aires. I knew beforehand that I would enjoy every single minute of the show, and actually that was the case.

I see Vasco Bariain at his summit as a singer, and he is alone right there. From the top of my mind I cannot find, among Spanish speaking rock and blues singers, another male voice that compares to his… and he benchmarks well with the best English speaking ones. His technical toolkit is always subordinated to emotional communication: the audience enjoys but does not notice his techniques, as far as they keep transported by the stream of feelings.

As an unexpected bonus among the encores, the Chevys offered Joe Cocker’s super soul version of "A Little Help from my Friends". At the counter-singing, the voices of the guest performers Rusito Diego Beiserman, with a beautiful high register, and Mariana Sosa, a mezzo-soprano with impeccable R&B resources, sounded exceptionally well.

The Chevys are at very high, world-class level. Juan Pillado demolishes the drums with no apparent effort. Together with the seamless perfection of Gabriel Gómez’s bass guitar, they build a rythm base that sounds at the same time powerful and dancing. Gómez, Vasco and Pillado are the three historical members of the band.

The Chevys have always been fantastic musicians, and those who joined along time brought in a similar, superlative level: Jorge Blanco’s virtuous guitar, Walter Galeazzi’s multi-expressive keyboards, and the somewhat jazz-contemporary biased harmonica of Leandro Rao, another skilled player at his debut with the Chevys.

Back to The Shuttle's website.

Support musicians also shined bright. Sol Pillado’s percussion and the metals of Lucía De Luca (saxo), Jesús Silva (trombone) and Miguel Sinagra (trumpet) gave density to the mosaic of sounds and orchestral breadth to the band. Actually at ND/Ateneo the Chevys brought onto stage a real show, with capital letters, similar to what we see on international bands’ DVDs.

It is true that, at some moments, I missed the road atmosphere of the old times, the beer poured on the floor, the visits to lovely underground enclaves. But, no doubt, the Chevys have kept growing, and the changes that came as a consequence of growth are okay to the extent that the essence of the ritual remains untouched. To certify this, the old and the new songs were there (among the new ones, Jorge Blanco’s sensitive piece dedicated to the people who died at Cromañon), and earlier band members were also invited onto stage: Mario "el Tano” Pugliese and his wise guitar, Blanco’s predecessor Javier Amoretti, the keyboardist Federico Sellés. The wineskin circulated around, no matter if the fancy seats of the theatre were in danger of receiving the splash. Fun and emotion as always. My heart does belong to the Chevys.

A word appart for Pulpo Negro’s high quality production. The robot-arm cammera that moved stage-wide (same as in Scorsese’s “Shine a light”) anticipated that the coming DVD will look fantastic. Really good bands preceded the Chevys: Stuka-racuda, Secuaz and Consumo. Their styles seemed a bit too diverse; maybe the selection should have pursued greater unity.

In January, 2010, the Chevys will move into studio to record their fifth CD.

Related links: Chevy Rockets' official site; Chevy Rockets' Facebook; “Buena Estrella”; “With A Little Help From My Friends”; “No pibe”; “El Ritual” (Warning: all videos posted in YouTube were shot by amateur cammera men).

Back to The Shuttle's website.