Customer Reviews

Ultimos Dias Del Am

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is the solo debut from guatemalan Juan Carlos Barrios (ex-Bohemia Suburbana guitarist), who fuses stylin' guitar, bass, and drum structures with traditional latin instruments, occasional electronic flourishes, and fleeting snatches of field recordings for a primarily instrumental winner that feels as simultaneously personal and in-the-world as the album's central AM Radio conceit.

the songs range from rolling-percussion town square fiestas to lonely cries from desert villages (the latter felt most poignantly in the bent-string guitar wail of "livingston buzz"), but all tracks are united by recurring bits of radio dial static--romanticizing the all-but-gone heyday of far-flying AM radio freedom--making every song feel like a late-night Amplitude Modulated transmission from alien mariachis that you've tuned in by accident, and that will be drowned out by top 40 Frequency Modulated noise all too soon.

if you're lucky enough to stumble across the phantom waves of Radio Zumbido... sincerely: DO NOT TOUCH THAT DIAL!!!

If you're looking for something completely new and beyond categorization, then you have to give this a try. It's, well..., a mix of latin, lo-fi, Amon Tobin thrown in a blender and crushed into a juicy drink to gulp down.

The CD only has seven full songs, the other four are "filler", AM radio type sound clips with indiscernible Spanish dialog in the background with some music laid over it. But the seven songs are solid, from the bright "radio solola" to the high energy "hi aleph", it's a good listen all the way through. The only song that stretches that is "lo-fi chicken bus", otherwise solid.

If you're looking to dive into something that's a step up in tempo from the "Chill Out" compilations, or just to get into something completely new that is too fast for a coffeehouse but not too jamming that you'll break your neck, then this will fill your hungering.

This album is just perfect. From beginning to end, it never lets up. It may be too loop-based in spots, but if you like dirty beats and totally seamless production with a chewed-up flavor, this is a flawless album.

There's nothing "clean" on this album and yet is never slips off the tracks or becomes garbled. Samples are layered on samples with extreme precision and the sense that you're listening to a broken Mexican radio through the wall of a Tijuana motel is incredibly immersive.

This is the most original Latin-flavored electronic album ever recorded in my opinion. Whether you like industrial music, turntablism, drum-n-bass or club music, this should satisfy your needs.

Firstly, I've got to take the last reviewer to task here. Overall his review is OK. I agree with most of what's said, but to say that the main track, the jewel in the crown of this album, to say that it is the only song that 'stretches a bit' on an otherwise good album says to me that this boy hasn't really got what this album's about at all!!!

I refer to the track no. 7, Lo-Fi Chicken Bus. Lo-fi indeed, with a relentlessly chugging downtempo latin beat, overlayed with simply incredible atmospherics and textures, this track is a JOY and the main reason I got the album (I has heard it on a compilation)!!! Also, track 1, El Hampa is a GEM and track 6, to a lesser extent... The rest are good, but repetitive. (in fact its all quite repetitive, may not be everyone's plate of nachos and guacamole)... but for me, when I came across "Lo-Fi Chicken Bus" it was like another musical door had opened for me... letting me see just how moving and atmospheric and downright GROOVY the blending of latin music with modern production techniques can be... a classic!

Hopefully with his next album R.Z. can find a bit more consistency but even if he doesnt I hope he can manage to find some grooves which move me as much as those of El Hampa and Lo-Fi Chicken Bus. I look forward to it... :)

All I can say about this album is that it is a great project of sounds blended and mixed beautifully into quite an original finish.

A mashup of classic latin riffs, techno production, and sounds from the barrio, this is the coolest music I've heard in a while. Kind of like the Latin Playboys but instrumental and much closer to the bone.