“Entren Los Que Quieran”
(Sony Music Latin)
(LOS QUE NO SABEN LEER EN INGLES QUE TRASDUCAN ESTA
VAINITA CON TOSTONES EN GOOGLE.COM)
The most iconoclastic character in hip-hop — if not all of pop — might well be René Pérez, the rapper called Residente in the Puerto Rican duo Calle 13. His partner is his stepbrother, the musician, composer and producer Eduardo Cabra, or Visitante. On “Entren Los Que Quieran” (“Everybody Is Welcome”), Calle 13’s fourth album, Mr. Pérez proclaims in the title of “Digo Lo Que Pienso,” “I say what I think,” and adds in the song that “I’m more controversial than Michael Jackson and his doctor.” Mr. Pérez is thoughtful in a way that never rules out a wisecrack, while Mr. Cabra’s music — whether it’s a Latin dance rhythm, an electric-guitar riff or an English horn quoting Mozart — underlines and deepens Calle 13’s ambitions.
The album begins by crowing — using a smiley vocal chorus like a 1960s sitcom theme — that “Entren Los Que Quieran” completes Calle 13’s current Sony contract, adding, “If you like this album on the Internet/You can download and pirate it.” In “Calma Pueblo,” with gnashing guitars from Omar Rodríguez-López of the Mars Volta, Mr. Pérez mocks the label, Puerto Rico’s governor, potential corporate sponsors, radio stations, the Vatican, the media and, for good measure, any listeners offended by Calle 13.
Yet for much of this album Calle 13 cuts back on comedy. Mr. Pérez has changed his delivery, switching from a nasal Beastie Boys sneer to a gruffer, more earnest tone. He has also jettisoned most (though not all) of the raunch that used to share songs with his sociopolitical broadsides.
“Entren Los Que Quieran” overflows with messages about rich and poor, struggle and rebellion. Calle 13 calls for solidarity across the Americas in “Latinoamérica,” which features three tradition-stretching guest singers — Susana Baca from Peru, Totó la Momposina from Colombia and Maria Rita from Brazil — over a hybrid Andean rhythm, with Mr. Pérez rapping, “I am Latin America, a land with no legs that still walks.”
The music, as on each of Calle 13’s previous albums, keeps expanding. “Vamo’ a Portarnos Mal” (“Let’s Misbehave”) punches up the galloping beat of a Dominican merengue with rock guitar. “Todo Se Mueve” (“Everything Moves”) draws on Nigerian Afrobeat, with Seun Kuti — the son of Afrobeat’s patriarch, Fela Kuti — joining in. “La Bala” (“The Bullet”) simulates a spaghetti western score, with Mr. Cabra whistling as Mr. Pérez contemplates a bullet’s destructive power and the forces behind it: “There is little money, but there are many bullets.” And “Baile de los Pobres” (“Dance of the Poor”) mingles Middle Eastern-flavored strings with Mexican banda (brass band) and whizzing electronics. Its lyrics juxtapose upper- and lower-class conditions and conclude, “Here we dance like the poor.” Even at its most serious, Calle 13 harnesses the power of a good time.
LEEAN EL ARTICULO AQUI:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/arts/music/30choice.html?_r=1
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario