Un Dia

Juana Molina | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Domino
• ASIN: B001EOQUDM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,899 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #85 in Music > World Music > South & Central America > Andes

Editorial Reviews

The fifth release from Argentinean artist Molina is a brave departure from her previous work. It's every bit as personal and intimate, but pronounced with rhythms and with bold low end added to the mix. A hypnotic record, restless, alive with melodies that surface imperceptibly before burrowing into your brain. The tracks are informed by an ever-shifting and polymorphous sense of groove. The rhythms flow over and inside each other, played out on wood and cymbal and bombo leguero, and woven from electronic glitches. David Byrne, NPR, and The NY Times are some of her many supporters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vocal Tour de Force, November 29, 2008

By 

Andrew I. Schamess - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Un Dia (MP3 Download)

This is my first encounter with Ms. Molina and I must say, this recording just blew me away. It's hard to know how to classify it. Is it electronica? Pop? World music? Jazz? It has elements of all of these, but Ms. Molina has created a totally distinctive sound that is listenable, danceable and still complex enough to grow with each hearing.

She uses simple, pentatonic melodies that make the tunes quite accessible, almost folk-like. Then she adds shifting, hypnotic rhythms, and the sort of variations in sound and dynamics that typically drive electronic/trance music.

But what is astonishing is her voice. She uses legato tone sequences, percussive chanting, shouts, howls and a huge range of other non-lexical singing techniques - often looped over each over - to create a fabulously rich texture of vocal sound. It's like nothing I've ever heard before.

Despite the sophistication of this music, it has the drive and appeal of pop. You don't need to steel yourself to listen to this, as you do with some avant garde artists. Quite the opposite. It sounds great out of the box; and it sounds great after listening a couple of dozen times, too.

I'm awfully glad I found this record. If you like music that has some depth and you appreciate innovation, this should definitely be part of your collection.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly Groundbreaking : Five Times in a Row, October 16, 2008

By 

Cabir Marc Davis (Amazon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Un Dia (Audio CD)

For Juana Molina, creating world music that sounds 'different' is by now something she is used to. On what I consider her best album, "Son", she took the tempo down even further and created a set of slow, intimate groove numbers that also worked as spacial, orchestral masterworks. The artist is indeed an experimentalist, but its quite something that she manages to remain mainstream while doing so, with enough 'pop' elements in her records so as to not be classified 'aloof'.

Things should change with "Una Dia" though, as this is by far her least accessible record. For long term fans such as myself, the album is yet another departure, as it is definitely 'faster paced' than her last two languid, almost breathtakingly slow albums. But for listeners who come trying to discover a new world artist, this might not be the best place to start. I highly recommend her far more intimate debut album for that. On "Una Dia", some of the set pieces are almost like intricately designed soundtrack-vignettes from some lost Spanish arthouse film. All of her 'nature' elements are still present, but there is a darker, more elusive quality to the music, almost bordering on trip-hop but without the beats (think a stripped down Tricky, or Martina Topley-Bird).

Personally I found the album too short, and the last three tracks a tad meandering, but its still essential if you are at all interested in Molina's musical output. She is the Frida Kahlo of the Spanish music world - underappreciated, yet eccentrically talented. Give this a spin, and check out that gorgeous cover art (all of Molina's album artwork are masterpieces in their own right - I have the artwork for her third album as a poster print, framed)

Four Stars.

Tracklisting:

1. Un Dia
2. Vive Solo
3. Lo Dejamos
4. Los Hongos De Marosa
5. ¿Quien? (Suite)
6. El Vestido
7. No Llama
8. Dar (Que Dificil)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and hypnotic rhythms and layers, November 12, 2008

By 

throwingjuly (Bainbridge Island, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Un Dia (Audio CD)

The first track, Un Dia, begins without hesitation and catalyzes the listener into a rhythmic soundscape of multi-layered vocals that reminds me of no one so much as Philip Glass, though the comparison with Glass pretty much ends there. The songs, fast and slow, are kaleidescopes of beats, sounds, melodies and words. A woodsy, psychedelic feel permeates the album from the artwork to the music, and it makes me think of some forested fantasy world full of lush vegetation and bizzare creatures juxtaposed with a slow Sunday morning. This is the first Juana Molina album I have listened to, and it has given me a wonderful impression of the artist and compels me to want to hear more from her.