SMC: Corcobado - Fotografiando al corazon
barcoach
Posts: 413
OK, guys, thanks for waiting, here my comments on the album
Javier Corcobado has been working on Spain's underground since long ago, and I've always thought his career in more than one way resembles that of Nick Cave. He started with a band called Demonios tus Ojos (Demons Your Eyes) that played chaotic and agressive post-punk kind of like The Birthday Party but with even a more corrosive sound and kind of surreal lyrics of madness. In the early 90's he became a solo artist and lost a lot of that violent approach in favour of a more melodic sound and sort of a crooner appeal to his voice, anyway he always kept his love for distorssion and "polluting" nice melodies with noise. For his second solo album and the next to follow he was supported by a band christened as "Chatarreros de sangre y cielo"(Junkers of blood and heaven), where he rescued some of the loud rawness on the guitars but worked in a more melodic way, taking big lessons from Sonic Youth, he developed a special guitar that he called "guitarra tormenta" (storm guitar) and that you still can hear on the pick I've selected for you. He's also been active as a writer, has published at least 2 volumes of poetry and one novel. Now, concerning his lyrics, a complain I had particularly towards his early work is that he seemed to be trying too hard to show himself as an existentialist and a doomed poet (too much on the steps of Baudelaire or Arthur Rimbaud), that some of them just felt fake. Fortunately this is something that he came to mend with years as well as producing a more polished work on the musical aspect. Through the years he's also explored different musical paths, such as the couple of EP's he recorded with a band named "Cría Cuervos" (Grow Crowes, basically were the Chatarreros refashioned in an acoustic mood) where he played covers of tango music and this Mexican typical romantic music from the 50's called Bolero, and also did a (failed) record of electronic music.
Now, I'm not sure if the album that I bring to you is his best, I can think of at least 2 more that can compete for that place, but I selected this one, first, because I think is a good resume of all the stages his work has gone through and second, for pure sentimental reasons, it was completely recorded here in Mexico with Mexican musicians (only he and his girl -he always gets his current girl on his bands- being the only Spanish). One thing is sure, it's his more balanced work to date.
The first track, Ciudad erótica (Erotic city), according to the liner notes of the disc is an old dream come true: to create a song almost entirely based on human voice sounds with no help from technology, he states this song as the rest of the album was done without using any samplers. Most of the album was also composed in Mexico, after he and his girl fleed from Spain to spend a year here. This becomes clear when listening to the second song of the album, "Secuestraré al amor" (I'll kidnap love), which you may find has sort of a country taste to it, but actually that comes from trying to sound like a "ranchera" song (kind of our own country music, similar to what Mariachis do). The third track, after which the album has been named, is a typical Corcobado tune driven by a solid beat, with his deep low voice -resembling Nick Cave, once again- and the storm guitar making its presence be felt at key moments. Track 6 is one of my favourites, "Desnuda en el pacífico" (Naked at the Pacific, undoubtly written in one of our stunning beachs at the coast of Oaxaca) grows on slow pace and the etheral keybords provide the song with a soft demential (or is it stoned?) mood, very sensual. Track 7 follows The Velvet Underground's repetition patterns, a constant through all of Corcobado's work, the liner notes say the song was inspired for a time while living in Mexico when every electric good seemed to be failing or breaking down, so the sentence he says again and again is: "Everything breaks down, everything breaks down, except for eternity". Now, it must be said most Corcobado's fans always were goth/dark/indie kids and this is one of his less dark records, it's almost like the final farewell to his usual crowd, in this sense track 9 "Yo no quiero saber" (I don't want to know) is his new declaration of principles with lines that go: "I don't want to know/any more about pain... Let me follow/my uncertain path... Today I dedicate this music/To those who've forgotten me/and lost their faith at me", if any of you is a Cure fan it could be compared to what Robert Smith tried to tell his fans in the Wish album with songs such as "Friday I'm in Love" and "Doing the Unstuck"... and actually it became true the last time I saw him live, he performed a bunch of covers (ranging from typical Mexican Mariachi songs to Velvet Underground) giving the fans few of what they expected which caused a bitter reaction from the crowd... I thought it was an awesome gig. And talking about covers, the album includes three of them: track 8 "Negue", sang in Portuguese, was originally recorded by the Brazilian chanteuse Maria Bethania, Corcobado says "I've tried to take it to my own field of no wave crooner under the rain". Track 11, "Ella ya me olvidó, yo la recuerdo ahora" (She's already forgotten me, I remember her now") originally from Leonardo Favio, I don't know anything about that guy, but because of the sound of it I believe this is an Argentinean tango. Finally, the closing track "Poupée de cire, poupeé de son" was written by the French crooner Serge Gainsbourg -whom I like a lot- and it's been covered by many artists (among them, Belle & Sebastian), Corcobado claims this is a long debt he had with pop music since his first musical memory is listening to this tune at the 1965 Eurofestival sang by a girl named France Gall, who won first place for Luxembourg, he confesses this is his "feel good song" and that it's kind of weird that a boy sings it, but since my French isn't that good these days I'm not really sure why is that, I only gather it says something about some garçons, which I understand means "boys".
If anyone cares about the titles in English of the songs I didn't talk about, those would be:
4. Vivir en tus ojos - To Live in Your Eyes
5. Temblando - Trembling
10. Amor anoréxico - Anorexic Love
12. Gasolina de Besos (Kisses Gas)
Well, I apologize for my lengthy description. I guess I still need to learn that synthesis is a virtue, but oh well... I really hope you might enjoy it.
Javier Corcobado has been working on Spain's underground since long ago, and I've always thought his career in more than one way resembles that of Nick Cave. He started with a band called Demonios tus Ojos (Demons Your Eyes) that played chaotic and agressive post-punk kind of like The Birthday Party but with even a more corrosive sound and kind of surreal lyrics of madness. In the early 90's he became a solo artist and lost a lot of that violent approach in favour of a more melodic sound and sort of a crooner appeal to his voice, anyway he always kept his love for distorssion and "polluting" nice melodies with noise. For his second solo album and the next to follow he was supported by a band christened as "Chatarreros de sangre y cielo"(Junkers of blood and heaven), where he rescued some of the loud rawness on the guitars but worked in a more melodic way, taking big lessons from Sonic Youth, he developed a special guitar that he called "guitarra tormenta" (storm guitar) and that you still can hear on the pick I've selected for you. He's also been active as a writer, has published at least 2 volumes of poetry and one novel. Now, concerning his lyrics, a complain I had particularly towards his early work is that he seemed to be trying too hard to show himself as an existentialist and a doomed poet (too much on the steps of Baudelaire or Arthur Rimbaud), that some of them just felt fake. Fortunately this is something that he came to mend with years as well as producing a more polished work on the musical aspect. Through the years he's also explored different musical paths, such as the couple of EP's he recorded with a band named "Cría Cuervos" (Grow Crowes, basically were the Chatarreros refashioned in an acoustic mood) where he played covers of tango music and this Mexican typical romantic music from the 50's called Bolero, and also did a (failed) record of electronic music.
Now, I'm not sure if the album that I bring to you is his best, I can think of at least 2 more that can compete for that place, but I selected this one, first, because I think is a good resume of all the stages his work has gone through and second, for pure sentimental reasons, it was completely recorded here in Mexico with Mexican musicians (only he and his girl -he always gets his current girl on his bands- being the only Spanish). One thing is sure, it's his more balanced work to date.
The first track, Ciudad erótica (Erotic city), according to the liner notes of the disc is an old dream come true: to create a song almost entirely based on human voice sounds with no help from technology, he states this song as the rest of the album was done without using any samplers. Most of the album was also composed in Mexico, after he and his girl fleed from Spain to spend a year here. This becomes clear when listening to the second song of the album, "Secuestraré al amor" (I'll kidnap love), which you may find has sort of a country taste to it, but actually that comes from trying to sound like a "ranchera" song (kind of our own country music, similar to what Mariachis do). The third track, after which the album has been named, is a typical Corcobado tune driven by a solid beat, with his deep low voice -resembling Nick Cave, once again- and the storm guitar making its presence be felt at key moments. Track 6 is one of my favourites, "Desnuda en el pacífico" (Naked at the Pacific, undoubtly written in one of our stunning beachs at the coast of Oaxaca) grows on slow pace and the etheral keybords provide the song with a soft demential (or is it stoned?) mood, very sensual. Track 7 follows The Velvet Underground's repetition patterns, a constant through all of Corcobado's work, the liner notes say the song was inspired for a time while living in Mexico when every electric good seemed to be failing or breaking down, so the sentence he says again and again is: "Everything breaks down, everything breaks down, except for eternity". Now, it must be said most Corcobado's fans always were goth/dark/indie kids and this is one of his less dark records, it's almost like the final farewell to his usual crowd, in this sense track 9 "Yo no quiero saber" (I don't want to know) is his new declaration of principles with lines that go: "I don't want to know/any more about pain... Let me follow/my uncertain path... Today I dedicate this music/To those who've forgotten me/and lost their faith at me", if any of you is a Cure fan it could be compared to what Robert Smith tried to tell his fans in the Wish album with songs such as "Friday I'm in Love" and "Doing the Unstuck"... and actually it became true the last time I saw him live, he performed a bunch of covers (ranging from typical Mexican Mariachi songs to Velvet Underground) giving the fans few of what they expected which caused a bitter reaction from the crowd... I thought it was an awesome gig. And talking about covers, the album includes three of them: track 8 "Negue", sang in Portuguese, was originally recorded by the Brazilian chanteuse Maria Bethania, Corcobado says "I've tried to take it to my own field of no wave crooner under the rain". Track 11, "Ella ya me olvidó, yo la recuerdo ahora" (She's already forgotten me, I remember her now") originally from Leonardo Favio, I don't know anything about that guy, but because of the sound of it I believe this is an Argentinean tango. Finally, the closing track "Poupée de cire, poupeé de son" was written by the French crooner Serge Gainsbourg -whom I like a lot- and it's been covered by many artists (among them, Belle & Sebastian), Corcobado claims this is a long debt he had with pop music since his first musical memory is listening to this tune at the 1965 Eurofestival sang by a girl named France Gall, who won first place for Luxembourg, he confesses this is his "feel good song" and that it's kind of weird that a boy sings it, but since my French isn't that good these days I'm not really sure why is that, I only gather it says something about some garçons, which I understand means "boys".
If anyone cares about the titles in English of the songs I didn't talk about, those would be:
4. Vivir en tus ojos - To Live in Your Eyes
5. Temblando - Trembling
10. Amor anoréxico - Anorexic Love
12. Gasolina de Besos (Kisses Gas)
Well, I apologize for my lengthy description. I guess I still need to learn that synthesis is a virtue, but oh well... I really hope you might enjoy it.
Stone: Thanks for the pick and the night of complicity, you rock!
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
when the first track, "ciudad erotica", started i instantly expected some aphex-twin-esque beats to kick in but instead it features some background noises that reappear throughout the album that remind me a lot of my bloody valentine...
it's a very ecclectic mix but the experimentation doesn't go overboard... at the core of each track there's always a SONG, so you don't get the feeling that it was just done to try out some electronic effects - it would still work in a sparse live environment...
you would expect a record like this to be hard to digest, but all the ecclecticism aside, it makes for a remarkably chilled listening experience...
Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.
http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/
pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
If you can't get high on purely music and the sounds that you hear, you're missing out on something.
Spanish to be precise, but everything recorded in Mexico.
I haven't given you a Mexican artist yet, maybe sometime in the future.
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
this is really growing on me...
Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.
http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/
pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
got it, Soda Stereo and a little Skinny Puppy on repeat today.
Ya know what? I can't help but finding it funny when I read some of you is kind of put away or sort of not sure about listening music in other languages. This with all due respect, of course. But the thing is most people here or in Spain or South America for that matter, don't understand but spare words in the biggest rock songs in history, but they just groove to the music. I know big fans of Led Zeppelin here that don't know what the hell is Black Dog or The Rain Song about, but they just love it with all their heart. Beatles fans that only can sing the obvious chorus and the yeah, yeah, yeah thing. Pearl Jam fans that aren't able to tell you the lyrics to one song, but headbanging as if it was a matter of life or dead.
I think is great when you're able to understand the whole message, after all that's why I tried to learn English since a young age, and now I can afford getting a living by being a translator. But even when it may sound like a cliche, I really believe music goes beyond language boundaries, because I see it all around me. One of my favorite albums ever is Night Song, by Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn with Michael Brook, and of course I don't understand Pakistan's language, but man, does it gets deep to my soul. Personally I have music from all around the globe, Brazilian bands singin' in Portuguese, French hip-hop acts, Japanese things, German industrial bands, Mano Negra that has songs in arabic, french, spanish, english, Norwegian folk singers, Sigur Ros and their hopelandish, even in Spain you find bands singin' on their native dialects from their regions, and that's never been a problem to me as long as I feel the music is telling me something. Even with this album you have a song in Portuguese and other in French, and those are two of my favorites here. Now, I haven't traveled as much as I'd like, but that's why my records are my treasures, they take me away, make me wonder, they crack my world open. Is just something I love, to be able to receive all these messages from so many different cultures, each one trying to do their thing, to appropiate rock, pop, or whatever it is.
So, my recommendation to everyone is just have open minds, open ears, and let yourself be taken by the movements of your soul, don't think where the trip is taking you, just enjoy the trip by the trip itself.
Salud, amigos!!
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
I have experimented with this selection a little to where I turn the volume down to the point where I can't really hear any vocals but out of the blue a musical sequence comes thru that hits me while I am typing away. Todo se Rompe and Gasolina de Besos popped out at me while doing this. I'll then stop the track, start over, hit the volume up and viola, it all comes together.
So back to Cuidad Erotica I go for another spin.
i'm sorry for taking it even further off topic but you raised some good points here...
i don't know how many of us SMC members are non-native speakers of english... but i think it's even a blessing being "handicapped" in the way that we don't understand all of the lyrics on first listen (and i'm not only talking about pearl jam here because eddie can be quite difficult to decipher even for native-speakers, or so i've heard
when i hear a song for the first time, i barely concentrate on the lyrics except for maybe the chorus and lines that are repeated a lot... what speaks to me first is the music...
it doesn't bother me that i don't understand the words on this album... i already figured out what most of the song titles meant before you posted the translations, just using my general knowledge of language and lots of guesswork... but music is the most universal language, so the songs are "meaningful" to me, they make me feel something - even if it's quite possibly not the same meaning that the person who wrote the lyrics intended (i can't know for sure because i don't understand the lyrics and it doesn't matter)...
on the other hand, i appreciate great lyrics... i think what inspired me most to study languages (i have a master degree in english and german literature) were the countless nights i spent with music as a teenager, booklet and dictionary in hand, trying to decipher lyrics to songs i loved... and let me tell you, even trite and simple lyrics are hard to figure out in a foreign language when you're not proficient... if you caught me singing along to an old guns n' roses tune, chances are i'd be singing total gibberish because i just didn't know what they were saying at all - and those "lyrics" stuck
of course, you can't always understand all of the lyrics on first listen even if the song is in your native language... but lyrics are very important to me...
that's why i haven't chosen a german-singing band for the SMC yet because i find that i'm especially drawn to german music with great lyrics... but i'm biased because i understand everything right away and don't know if the music would be still as good if i didn't know what they are saying... it probably would be, but all i'm saying is that you're immediately biased (for better or worse) when a song is in your native language...
sorry for my ramblings though
Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.
http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/
pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
It would be cool for example to study Spanish and when someone asks me why my interest, I could simply say Corcobado drove me to do it.
that's not the worst reason at all!
honestly, music made me learn english...
when you're forced at school to learn languages you just don't realize how they can make your life better, more open to different cultures and other ways of thinking... i'm really a language person myself but everytime i pick up a poem by charles baudelaire i could kick myself for not having kept up with french (i can still read most of it but i'm just not fluent although i've been told my pronunciation is great)... i'd love to be able to read books in spanish or italian because i always prefer the original to the translation, same with movies... but sadly, english is my only second language i'm fluent enough to use in each and every situation...
but when you're learning a language there needs to be some initiative... and i think appreciation for a piece of art in a foreign language is a perfect reason...
when i was teaching german at british schools i think i made this kid's day when i played his rammstein tape in class and we talked about it... i don't care for rammstein all that much but i just thought it was great that this band was doing the same to him as other bands did to me and made me want to learn the language...
Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.
http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/
pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
you know what amazes me the most? how chance or fate or whatever makes you meet souls that have so much in common with you... a friend of mine used to tell me "is cool to know you because we both come from the same planet", and damn i guess that's true concerning us guys...
psy, for me also the reason for trying to learn English in the first place was music... I just needed to know what Bruce Springsteen or The Cure (2 very different artists) were singing about because their songs seemed to move me so deeply... and you know what, I also studied a master in literature, modern literature, and though I haven't got my thesis done, if I ever do it I plan to do it about an English author, even when at the university I studied they always try to direct you to a spanish language writter... at the end of the day, I think music is what drove me also toward literature, and I can entirely understand when you say you'd like to read Baudelaire in French, 'cause I've experienced that feeling lots of times... and even more working as translator, I know the translated version of any text always betrays something in the original, but there's no other option than trying to get the best translation you can and work with that... I think translation is kind of a miserable work, you're never gonna please anyone... not the author, because after all you're sort of stealing his text and working it in a whole new fashion to adapt it to the language you're translating it into... and not the reader, because he's not getting the real thing, but what you've made of it... but that being said, I'm just passionate about how a language reveals a particular way of seeing the world... I'm just passionate about the mere concept of language, why this word means this and no this other thing... is really awesome, one of the biggest miracles...
But, well, I don't wanna turn this into a literature lecture. Thing is language in any culture first came as poetry, and poetry is essentially music, and I think that takes us back to our original discussion. Language and music are strongly linked, and yeah, sometimes you don't even understand songs in your native language, but they get to you, and sometimes you prefer the words you've made to those songs, because they're meaningful for you, and I don't think an artist would be offended for that, because all great art aims to touch you in a personal level, once the work is out there it doesn't belong to whoever created it in the first place, but to the people that's receiving it and loving it and making it their own... I really think that's what really makes us humans, not politics, not civilization, not reason, but that mysterious way of communication that art creates among us.
And you, trans, you're also so right... I also wish I had traveled more and had the chance to learn more languages, but hey, that's not gonna stop me from enjoying what I want... I know some spare words in German, spare words in French, and that's just enough to more or less follow what the artist is trying to say. The mere fact that you like to take chances, the mere fact you allow your mind to set into a different mood speaks tons of you, not only as music lover, but as human being. I think if more people would just take that simple, small chance, this whole planet would be a better place... and that sounds kind of cheap, but i really do believe in that. That's the power of art, that's the tower of song that Leonard Cohen sang about, that's what made The Clash when they decided to play reggae.
You remember Gogol Bordello? I interviewed that guy and he told me something when I asked about the many cultures on his band: "the more reasons you have to party, the more reasons you have to embrace the world and enjoy it, the better". And he's so damn right. And that doesn't mean I want all the bands to sound like Gogol, or Mano Negra, or any other multicultural combo, but just being able of listening to Dylan and then bangin' Corcobado if you want, and then Serge Geinsbourg, and then some KMFDM, and then go to some Delta Blues, and then going to your neighbourhood's band gig just because even if they're bad musicians, you just have enough soul to enjoy -and suffer- life with all its different faces... I know there are enough colours in my soul to be a fan of Bruce Springsteen and The Cure at the same time... some people just can't understand that.
-The crazy guy with the Ramones t-shirt.
Mexico C. 12/10/05.
"There is a rose that I want to live for
although, God knows, I may not have met her"
-J. Strummer
"And you'll never know just how dark this screen could be"
Anyway, I've been giving the disc a few spins, and Nick Cave - good call. Is it just me, or does Spanish just sound so damn sexy? I mean the opening track is an erotic ride through voice experimentation, but this guy's voice is great in its own terms. It doesn't bother me that I have no idea what he's saying, because his voice acts like another instrument, like another sexy bass line. The deep sound is awesome. If his voice waas higher, I don't think it would match the mood of the music. But it's the second half of this album that really got me going. From track 7 on til the end, it's a great ride in soundscapes and effects. I love how the electronic stuff is put in, doesn't bother too much with the overall feel, but adds just enough to give it a bit more "freak". The different moods are also very interesting. I can see why you said it's a "lesser dark" record, barcoach, since I can actually imagine him going much deeper into the darker side and staying with it. I mean, track 2 is pretty damn beautiful, isn't it?
Cafe Tacuba was probably the first artist from the Spanish-spoken area that I first fell in love with, but this is another great artist. Thanks for the pick, barcoach!
Cheers.
If you can't get high on purely music and the sounds that you hear, you're missing out on something.
I'm actually kinda disappointed that this album was.. uh, disappointing to me. I think listening to the first song and then having to wait to listen to the rest didn't help. Cuidad Erotica was such a surprise that I think I expected too much after that. I may try and give this a rest for awhile and come back to it to see if I feel any different.