Cumbia Siglo XXI

民謡クルセイダーズとのコラボ作も話題沸騰中のマリオ・ガレアーノ率いるフレンテ・クンビエロ、そのガレアーノもメンバーに名を連ねるクンビア・パンク・バンド =ロ ス・ピラーニャスとともにオルタナティブなラテン音楽の最前線を突っ走るメリディアン・ブラザーズが、ジュネーブの BONGO JOE より待望の新作をリリース!

UK SOUNDWAY からリリースされた前作 『Donde estas Maria?』 でみせたアコースティックなアンサンブルから一転、本作では80年代にフューチャリスティックなクンビアを追及していたカルト・バンド Cumbia siglo XX (クンビアXX世紀!)の作品を参考に、伝統と都会のカオスを融和。シンセ・グルーヴ、グリッチなども交えた毒々しくも時空の歪んだサイケデリックなクンビアをたっぷり収録するキラーすぎる一枚となった。日々進化するラテン音楽の最前線を知りたければ、マストの一枚!

Bogotas Meridian Brothers are a futurist, electro-rock act at the forefront of experimental Latin rhythms and styles. Founder and multi-instrumentalist Eblis Alvarez writes, plays, arranges, and records the bands albums solo. These explore Latin folk and popular styles including vallenato and currulao, woven through electronica, neo-psych, prog, and cartoon soundtrack music. Cumbia Siglo XXI is titled after a defunct Colombian group who played a sci-fi version of discofied cumbia during the 1980s. The songs here readily reference that as a lift-off point to explore cumbia as a genre. Alvarez melds folkloric and pop Colombian, Argentinian, and Mexican cumbias to vintage rock, neo-electro, spidery funk, and tropical styles. As on previous Meridian Brothers outings such as Salvadora Robot and Suicidas, he illustrates this project with an army of snaky guitars in strange tunings, (mostly cheap) electronics, guerilla production, unusual vocal treatments, and razor-sharp humor. His percussion methods juxtapose the organic with the sampled and looped, all appended by spaced-out pitch manipulations. There isnt a track here, no matter how strange, that doesnt groove. Check out the spiky chiptune electronics creating the melody on Los Golpeadores de la Cumbia, as it staggers through layers of vintage Mattel drum machines set on clatter. Cumbia del Pichaman is a cover of Dusty Springfields soul classic Son of a Preacher Man, filtered through the Barranquilla rhythms of Anibal Velasquez prismatically under and alongside reggae guitars, perverse singing, and Caribbean harmonies. The real killer here is Puya del Empresario, where primitive synths zig, zag, and collide (think The Normals T.V.O.D. meets Devos Red Eye). The space-age moodiness and edgy drama in Cumbia de la Fuente slither forth with staggered sci-fi flick sound effects, brittle, distorted drum machines, and cascading surf guitars. Immediately following that, Cumbia de la Amistad cracks across mutant disco soundtrack music with reverbed guitars and spun-up synths that cant decide whether theyre lead or rhythm instruments. Cumbia Totalitaria delivers a straight, chanted cumbia melody, but dubbed with paranoid vocals, and a pulsing tempo that shifts and changes beats seemingly at will. The fun continues with Cumbia de Soledad, an intense, skittering reinvention of cumbia as alien dance music beamed through a car radio. Its militant, hyper, kinetic, and fun. For many years, Alvarez, who grew up on cumbia, resisted the impulse to explore it deeply when making music. It demands rigorous knowledge and discipline to understand its norms, let alone transgress them. Journeying though Colombias approach and roping in Argentinian and Mexican derivations liberated Alvarez to go deep and wide. Cumbia Siglo XXI is easily Meridian Brothers most satisfying outing to date. While no less insane than its predecessors, its musicality is as abundant as it is adventuresome. Further, it pays tribute to cumbia even as it exaggerates and satirizes it with almost familial warmth and affection. ~ Thom Jurek

ホントサイコー。メンバーの別プロジェクト、ロス・ピラーニャスも良かったけど、やっぱり本体(どれが本体か知らないけど…)ですよね。コロンビアのスットコドッコイ電子フォルクローレバンド、メリディアン・ブラザーズの3年ぶり新作。国内でも紹介され一部の好事家に衝撃を与えてから更に2枚程出て、段々とアコースティック度が上がっていたところ、ここへ来てのエレクトロ回帰! デジタル・クンビアを今でも好きなあなた歓喜の「21世紀のクンビア」、どっちが回帰なんだか混乱しますが、メリディアンはやっぱこれだよ! チープでスカスカで、だけど何も足す必要がない完璧な愛すべき音楽です。
intoxicate (C)片切真吾