By Fernando Bautista @badblood
Editor's note: The Bad Blood It's one of the most active bands in Bogotá right now. That's why we invited Fernando, its founder, to talk about his favorite music., and in particular his 10 favorite Latin songs. Her response includes a varied and fun list. Here's her Latin set:
1 – Cafe Tacvba – Tropic of Cancer (Mexico)
As a musician, the definitive album for me was the Re by Cafe Tacvba. When I was 10 years old, it was the first physical album I bought and He taught me everything from a love for our music to a taste for the stridency of metal and heavy rock (The Lamb (It's the Latin American Ministry). Everything eclectic, critical, and avant-garde converges in an ambitious work of Latin American art that, hand in hand with the incredible Gustavo Santaolalla, It managed to penetrate me in a comprehensive and lifelong way.
Among the 20 incredible songs on this album, I chose Tropic of Cancer, not only because it is one of the least known songs on the album, but to manage in a few lines to convey the clear message of the need for communion between the planet and us as a species. Today, I don't know whether to feel admiration from an artistic point of view or sadness for the current context in which the topic it addresses continues to be contextualized: More than 20 years have passed and the lyrics of this song are more relevant than ever.
2 – Sumo – The Dumb Blonde (Argentina)
I only understood it when I had the opportunity to travel all over Argentina and experience its culture firsthand. Divided until Catupecu Machu, from The Cadillacs until The Spirits, from Illya Kuryaki a Eruca SativaAll the glorious music that Argentine artists have given us in the last three decades is imbued with that ineffable sound achieved by Luca Prodan, Ricardo Mollo and that constellation called Sumo.
With so many songs, I couldn't decide between Little flags and balloons, It's best not to talk about certain things., Tomorrow at the Abasto or so many other emblematic anthems that contributed to Argentine music. I'm leaving with The Dumb Blonde, not only because I love the precise, biting, and critical description of that superficial and artificial Buenos Aires society, but by the conclusive phrase contained in its lyrics that can summarize everything I am writing: «This is real ARGENTINA!«.
3 – How to Murder Felipes – The Valid Popular Remedy (Chili)
When I first heard this band's music in Santiago, they were introduced to me as «"a jazz ensemble that experiments with electronic music and features a brutal MC singing"». How much is left out of that description of the music they make: The musical avant-garde that CAF proposes is what, for me, makes them the most interesting band of the moment in all of Latin America.
Now with another album and working hand in hand with the genius of Billy Gould (Faith No More) The band has more potential than ever. However, the point they reached in It will begin again It will always be very special to me because it was the album through which I discovered them. And this song, with its orgasmic musical arrangement, in particular, holds a message that is too valuable for me as the insurgent and insubordinate person against all military institutions that I am: «I go, afraid but facing forward… I go, angry and insolent… I am the one who demands respect… I am a supporter of the most valid popular recourse: From today we will not accept any more abuses.«.
4 – Silva and Villalba – The Acacias (Colombia)
I know that this millennial generation finds all this type of music foreign and distant, But there is no song that manages to capture the pain and sadness of Colombian reality and social conflict like The Acacias. From forced displacement to voluntary migration, Colombian history is rooted in the uprooting from the place where one was born and raised in search of a better life, and that eternal longing to return to that place, even if only to die. Starting with a poem by a Spaniard, Jorge Molina Cano, He managed to turn that feeling into music.
Along with this one, other Colombian folk songs such as Old Town, The Path of Life, South And so many more manage to narrate very well that feeling that I, personally, tacitly saw in my grandparents and in my parents. Furthermore, without diminishing the folklore of the Caribbean, Pacific, or Llanos regions, As a guitarist, I will always be much more moved by those arrangements that almost make the guitars cry, contained in bambucos, guabinas, pasillos and all Colombian Andean music.
5 – Ruben Blades – The past doesn't forgive. (Panama)
Of all Latin American musicians, I have always thought that Ruben Blades is the most brilliant and underrated of them all: From his musical compositions and immense work as a lyricist to his multidisciplinary ambition and his ability to abstract and extrapolate the Latin American life experience and imprint it on his music, making it eternal for our generation and all future generations of the continent, he is a giant who has not been properly valued in his lifetime.
The past doesn't forgive. It is, among so many incredible songs he wrote, my favorite song from his entire long and prolific career. Since I first heard it, its significance in my life has been absolute; its lyrics not only resonate deep within me but He's a great role model for me when it comes to writing songs. And honestly, I think it has one of the best musical arrangements in the entire history of universal music: just its piano solo and those winds that cry like few others make up for the whole song.
6 – Tom Zé – Tropicalia Lixo Lógico (Brazil)
Tom Zé is a genius, a poet and musician like few other artists born in Latin America. I was fortunate enough to discover his music in Salvador de Bahia precisely around the time this album was released., and I was immediately captivated by the avant-garde nature of his music from a Latin American perspective.
I will always find it regrettable that the Latin American music industry still maintains a language barrier between Spanish and Portuguese when, in my view, based on the paradigm of education in the continent, Portuguese/Spanish bilingualism should be mandatory. Without delving into the disastrous consequences of maintaining this barrier and the potential social and cultural repercussions of breaking it, I think Spanish speakers miss out on a lot of incredible music from Brazil just because of this fact.
7 – The Petit Fellas – Suspense (Colombia)
Currently, The biggest challenge for those of us who make music is still to make good songs with content. that are relevant in an industry that encourages and even rewards the opposite: it gives visibility to the trivial. Sometimes it's rather disheartening. And yet, here at home, almost a year ago, created and produced by brothers in the same cause, in Suspense I found a clear example that a balance can be found And that there is a path for those of us who want to transcend with our music and our lyrics.
Considering that I'm still processing it, at some point I hope to delve deeper into the full magnitude of what the album containing this song represents.. As always, avoiding the irrelevant and stupid envy that's common among the players in our music scene, and without needing to be subjective, flattering, or obsequious to acknowledge the greatness of my brothers, for now I can conclude the following: All independent musicians in Colombia are very well represented by The Petit Fellas and their Ideas or Ways to Get Lost; It is art destined to transcend time and represent our era in the future of our music and its importance in the cultural history of Latin America.
8 – Violeta Parra – What will the Holy Father say? (Chili)
I've always found it incredible that the music of Violeta Parra, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Chavela Vargas or other exponents of the folklore of our continent have the edge that rock, metal and Latin American music in general lack today. Considered blasphemous and sacrilegious in its time, All his music responds to the still valid truths of the Latin American sentiment that seeks to remain in harmony with the land and its people while facing the difficulties and social impositions of his time. If we're not better off today, why doesn't our music reflect that?
I was going to put Little Questions About God of Atahualpa, but in the end I decided on Violeta: from her relevance in the career of legends like Mercedes Sosa until listening to contemporary artists like Natalia Lafourcade o Mike Patton with Mondo Cane pay tribute to him with What Have I Gained By Loving You?, Violeta Parra is, for me, the greatest exponent of Latin American music and I believe she should be remembered forever as such.
9 – The Fabulous Cadillacs – The Condemned Ones (Argentina)
During my university years I discovered a lot of music thanks to many classmates who had diverse tastes. That's how I learned to listen to the heaviest metal and the most tropical music simultaneously. I learned about electronic music and hip hop at the same time. I learned about Latin folk music and Anglo rock. I learned about foreign folk music and Latin American rock. And from that whole period, one of the bands that resonated with me the most was The Fabulous Cadillacs, with those masterpieces called Fabulous Skull and, in particular, The March of the Lone Goal.
I particularly love this song because it's Latin American darkness made into a song: The entire musical arrangement of the darkest carnival band in history is a gem., Flavio's bass is spot on, the slide guitar paints a vintage landscape, Vicentico's nostalgic and hypnotic vocals, the glorious percussion that, in some samba/candombe/I-don't-know-what pattern, marks the rhythm of a funeral that, in the middle of Carnival, dances towards death. Simply incredible!
10 – Grupo Niche – Without Feeling (Colombia)
Between rancheras, "ironing music" and salsa The sound of my childhood and adolescence was formed. In particular, salsa was the soundtrack of seeing my parents, at the age I am now, amidst their anxieties, efforts and conflicts, raising me to be a good human being. From watching my sister and cousins grow up as pioneers of experiences that I later lived through myself. Taking that step towards independence, learning to grow, to love and to lose amidst illusions and disappointments, and setting in motion the pursuit of all my ambitions and goals.
I don't know if the same thing happens to all my contemporary compatriots, but for me all the music of Grupo Niche It serves as a time machine, evoking with a beautiful nostalgia different periods of my life, having been born in Colombia. I chose this song not only for its immense musical quality, for having lyrics like few others written in our country, or because even in 2017 I still listen to it and sing and dance to it with the same enthusiasm as always: I chose it because it always makes me wonder if in 20 or 30 years, when people listen to one of my songs, they will feel the same way I feel when I listen to it. Without Feeling. It is the perfect example to explain my true ambition as a musician.
