By José Gandue @Gandour Photos by Tana Vallejo @Tanavallejo
to those named in the note, whom I love in a special way
Interestingly, this page, dedicated to Latin culture, was created from a love for music made in Manchester over the last few decades. Zonagirante.com was born from a naive desire, in 1999, to discover and promote, if necessary, a spirit of independent art in Latin America as reflected at the time by bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and, of course, after Ian Curtis's death, New Order. It was about believing that something similar to what happened in the north of England in the late seventies and throughout the eighties, It could work somewhere on our continent, At a time when all, or almost all, of the continent's leading artists belonged to the major record labels—that is, to the corporate machine. But, mind you: the love for these British bands didn't initially stem from their struggle to survive in their own country through their association with small companies founded by irresponsible dreamers. What bound me to them was, of course, the music.
I came to know New Order thanks to my brother. He had just returned from a year-long trip to England when I was visiting Bogotá on university vacation. He lived in an apartment that was mostly empty, and where I would go with my girlfriend at the time to listen to music and jump around. While looking through the package of vinyl records my brother had brought from London, I found a special, gorgeous edition of Power, Corruption and Lies.That day, while it was playing Age of Consent, We ran all over the place with a childlike joy that was hardly ever repeated in my life. That day, I remember giving my girlfriend the last kiss we were able to share. Then she became my personal ghost for many years. It's the same when I see the flowers on the cover of Power, corruption and lies, I remember that I was happy that day, and that's enough.
The next New Order album that made a mark on me was Technique. I listened to it thousands of times in the company of a couple of good friends, Felipe and Iván, on multiple road trips outside of Bogotá. We always turned up the volume when it was time to Dream Attack, a song that is very difficult to find in the setlists of the group's performances when they go on tour.
Technique, Contradicting the obvious trends of the time, and the recording location (Ibiza), it was an album that played with the electronic trends of the moment, but broke the mold by resisting the obviousness of the moment with electric and acoustic guitars, making perfect songs that could not only have their reason for being in the nightclubs of that time. Dream attack, final cut of the original edition of the album, It's an exciting topic in its simplicity, Its appeal lies in its easy accessibility to anyone seeking an exciting composition, without much embellishment. It features a brief passage on the toms that, upon first hearing it, leaves listeners hoping for a repeat performance. That song, I can assure you, paved the way for the formation of many bands around the world.
A few years later he arrived Get Ready. First, that incredible video of Crystal, where, not seeing them on screen, more than one person wondered who was performing the song It was a band that sounded exactly the same but with much younger faces. We all thought there was a clone band called The Killers (then Brandon Flowers, realizing that no band was actually called that, named his fledgling project after them). Here we saw a revamped New Order., relying on the aggressive distortions of its strings for strength, without anyone stopping dancing. We were facing a band ready to swallow the world again, armed with powerful recordings that contained an unusual and dirty beauty. It was about revalidating that spirit of their city in the late seventies with the tools of the nascent twenty-first century.
I've seen New Order live twice. The first time was on an incredibly cold night at an open-air festival north of Bogotá. I must confess I cried several times., while shouting and jumping in a small space located to the side of the stage. For a moment I thought of my partner from those times Power, Corruption and Lies.The funny thing, and I say this without any resentment, is that at that moment what I remembered most was not our last kiss, but the excitement of running like a child through a stranger's apartment while the music blasted from the speakers.
The second time was recently, in Sonar Bogotá. At that concert, I spent a good part of the time observing the people around me. In particular, I was moved to see my friend Manuel dancing like never before and being as happy as the rest of the audience, many of whom were close to our age., Reclaiming the lost moment and confirming that we still have much to shout, dance, and celebrate. Before us stood a band of fifty-somethings who, in their daily lives, were undoubtedly the epitome of British formality, but who on stage knew their responsibility was to fill us with life through their more than thirty-five years of history. Many of those who saw them that day shed their professional personas and smiled like they hadn't in a long time.
Anyway, that's it, and you know it, the value of music.
Photos: New Order at Sónar Colombia, by Tana Vallejo.
