Musically, its stubborn refusal of rock ’n roll tropes in search of jazzy pastures makes it refreshing - not just within David Bowie’s sprawling discography, but it also serves as a natural continuation of jazz in popular music, following last year's sprawling Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly. But it is exactly that that makes it my number one album on top of a pretty terrible year. The experience of listening to Blackstar at the time of release, then grappling it in the wake of his death, was a surreal and harrowing one. “ooo, uhh, ooo uhh, u geddit?” Ok time for lunch. Another thing I love about this record is the use of a wide palate of drum beats that drop in the pocket, double back and hit you hard, making you go “ uhh”. If you only have time for one track from this album, 'GLOWED UP' featuring the great Anderson. This album is a melting pot of really unique sounding synths and modulated vocals that bend, shift and filter in unexpected but pleasant ways, that make you go “ ooo”. I picture a nice bowl of beef stew with mini round potatoes, tidy chunks of tender beef, and a creamy peppery broth (pardon me, it's 2pm at time of writing and I haven’t had lunch). On sleepy afternoons, this album is the perfect pick-me-up. I wanna learn to move like him, and wear bell bottom pants. On a lighter note, Dev Hynes is a great dancer. Lyrical content wise, a meaningful and moving record chronicling oppressive racial and cultural struggles. Love how he weaves in multiple voices to create a distinct vocal sound throughout the record. Please excuse us – what we mean to say is, “Salu2” is going to use up tons of megs.Funk, 80s R&B, melodic hooks that I find myself waking up humming to in the morning. The album will be released in vinyl (500-copy, numbered-limited-edition, transparent vinyl) and digital format, and will definitely have people writing and talking about it. With the support of Carlos René on production work and a few songs, which he also plays live with them now, Juan and Olaya Pedrayes have written a surprising album that puts them right in the spotlight of the here and now of national music. Just listen to that barely minute long “Debora Tartas”. Or “Heavens Gate” and its passionate, dislocated, digitalized punk.Īnd we also can’t forget to mention those impossible lyrics – so much fun, without beating around the bush, capable of handling taboos with alarming ease. Or “Farmacia”, which surprises us in its plays on references and tropical evocations, its slippery programming that is also direct and soaked in J-pop. But songs like “XXX” and their digital flirtations, mixed with those merciless guitars, the roller-coaster-like structures, and that melody that makes your heart swell and your feet move, all of these things are what have turned AXOLOTES MEXICANOS into a group that is representative of the sound of their times – a sound that is unmistakably their own but is also inevitably tied to the time they themselves are writing. And yes, there are more examples of their canonic, irreverent punk-rock, like “Estanquero”. They maintain the impeccable effectiveness of their choruses, as, to give an example, “Menos 100” and “Vaga” demonstrate. “Nacida Para Sufrir” and “Sin Ti” are euro-pop, disco, pop-punk… HELEN LOVE, JUNIPER MOON, SHAMPOO, early PHOENIX … But no, there’s autotune, those twisted frequencies, they talk about TOFUBEATS and KERO KERO BONITO…Īnd yes, again, only two of the thirteen songs on the album reach the three-minute mark.
“Trececatorce” dives head first into sped-up J-pop. Capital letter POP, twenty-first century pop. Those fat, broken, fragile beats, a slippery song that still maintains every last drop of the immediacy of its predecessors intact.
But then “Doble Check” comes on, and your head spins. The instrumental “Intro” and “Astor” go right into what we were expecting – unhinged, hyper-energetic, catchy, youthful and speedy pop-punk with lyrics that twist your heart into a knot. “Salu2” is an album that reflects a moment in time, starting with the title itself, and the cover. And here they are again, at last! And we can’t even believe it. Their Mini-LP and their Singles have been models in audacity and strength. This is a new era for pop, in so many different ways, and the AXOLOTES MEXICANOS have been and continue to be, without a doubt, one of the most pressing promises on the national scene. Numbered limited edition of 500 clear vinyl LP with download.ġ. Intro 2.