One of the things I like about Argentina, as opposed to the USA, is they dont have the stupid anti-intellectual thing that is so popular in the US these days.
this is particularly noticeable in music. In the USA, you are ranked as a geek or nerd if you actually know anything about history, or have studied at all.
The highest form of praise there is reserved for teenagers whose parents have bought them $5000 worth of electronics, who heard skrillex once.
Here, you see bands all the time who are not only really good players, but have a working knowledge of the continiuum of music history.
I went to see a band on Thursday that illustrated that- they were playing what we used to call in the seventies, "new music", which meant music that was not only informed by rock and roll and jazz, but also by Stockhausen, and the attempts of people like Boulet and Varese and Webern to reconcile "classical" music with the 20th century.
In other words, music that might require some thinking.
I was lucky enough to be living in Seattle in the 1970s, when musician and composer David Mahler was programming new music at the late and lamented arts center and/or.
I saw, en vivo, people like Charlemagne Palestine and Laurie Anderson, and learned about Blue Gene Tyranny and Meredith Monk and Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatam and Harry Partch, La Monte Young and Terry Riley.
All of which informed and made possible bands like Soul Coughing, Muslimgauze, or Burial.
I am in the process of learning how Argentine music fits together- particularly, I am educating myself as to how it reassembled itself after Alfonsin was elected in 1983, and the cultural scene here blossomed and reconnected with the world at large.
There are lots and lots of connections between bands and musicians that become clear only with more study.
Everybody basically knew everybody, and played with everybody.
So the band I saw, Estupendo, was actually a favorite of Gustavo Cerati, even though their music is seemingly a world apart from his arena pop.
This is a band that is influenced by Musique Concrete, by Dada, by Stockhausen and Zappa's collaboration with Grace Slick.
Like many of the bands in this 4 week cycle of concerts at La Tangente in Palermo, they are influenced by the 4AD bands of Britain in the 80s. In their case, its more 23 Skidoo and This Mortal Coil than New Order.
Which is not to say they are derivative of any of these bands- merely that they are drinking from the same well.
Its a band that doesnt hesitate to drop in found sounds, dogs barking, trains whistling, static and buzz, while looping, sampling, delaying and sqawking.
And, alongside that, melodic singing, live instruments, skillful keyboards- these guys dont always dance, but they can play just as good as they want.
They can make you dance, and they can make you stop.
Live, they were pretty, well, lively.
Their first album came out in 94, and they were engaged in musical conversation with the other intellectual heavyweights of argentina at that time and since, people like Daniel Melero, who plays at the same club this coming Thursday, and I will be there, with bells on.
All the Estupendo albums are available for free download from their record label, Mandarina.
They often go years without putting out albums, and they, in their own words, believe in "fluctuation". Meaning not a consistent sound, but more like a consistent hum in the background.
A relatively approachable cut-
https://youtu.be/1I3yORcvHQo
link to Mandarinas
http://mandarinasrecords.com.ar/category/discos/
