I Went To See A Band...

[Ries]

Here is La Grande with Barbara Togander, not as far out as much of her solo work.

 

[Ries]

Then, a few days later, Foto at Chilavert.
This is the second time we went to Chilavert, a working print shop, in two weeks.

This time, Togander was playing with Foto, a band she was in over ten years ago. They released an album in 2014.
Its a group that fits no categories- on Discogs,they call it “post punk”, but, really, that label could apply to anything recorded after 1976.
Its one of those bands whose members have all played in lots of other bands, a string I pull on and it unravels leading me all over the history of music in Argentina.
Its a little guitars feeding back, a little John Zorn, a pinch of free jazz, noise, and some wild abandon thrown in.
Its all improvised-the “songs” were named after they were played, and are never really the same song twice.
Each of the musicians is on a dozen or two albums over the years, between them they probably have played with hundreds of other musicians.

The drummer, Diego Zoloschin, plays with Clan Caiman, these days, so I have seen him live several times.He can be quiet, or he can be loud. He can play a backing beat, or improvise for ten minutes.

The guitarist is Wenchi Lazo, who has been in a whole series of different bands over the last 30 years or so. Sometimes more rock, sometimes more jazz, sometimes more uncategorizable noise.
He is a magician with the guitar,making it sound like anything and everything.
He contributed solos for the first Babasonicos album in 1992, but rather than going mainstream rock, he has always been an edgy improvisor.

Bass is Hernan Hayet, who has solo albums, played in a couple long running bands, including Diamantes and Gordoloco Trio, with lots of other colabs and guest spots.

And on vocals, Barbara Togander.

The era this band dates to, late 2000s early teens, is the era of Radiohead and Sonic Youth, but it also calls to mind CAN, but as if 40 years of pollution has settled on the CAN albums, making it hazier and adding a kind of distance to the more precise beats of CAN.

The crowd was mostly old enough to have seen this band live the first time around, average age probably at least 50. A bunch of other musicians who rarely leave their lairs were there, because this was special. And probably wouldnt happen again.

Chilavert is always, well, chill. The bands play up on the entrepiso, the mezzanine, and below, there is a dark warehouse stretching into the distance, full of printing presses, stacks of boxes, and odd detritus.
There are reasonably priced snacks and drinks, and its like a loft party, not like a bar or a club.

And the music?
Its like nothing else. Its loud, and dynamic, and completely not what you thought it would be, or what it was five minutes ago. Its got danceable parts, and it concentrates the audience into a trancelike state, except for that one kid whose parents dragged him along, who is sitting in the back on his phone, probably listening to Catriel...

After this show, I went home and found a half dozen more Barbara Togander albums, which I bought and downloaded, including one, Nancy, which features the bass playerand drummer from this band, but not the guitarist. Its pretty great too.

here is what the band sounded like live, in 2013.
They are all a bit grayer now.

 

[Ries]

the album is on bandcamp. I dont use spotify, or other streamers, I buy music, so I dont know where else you can find it.
https://fotocomeranas.bandcamp.com/track/intravenosa

 

[Ries]

On the 5th we had a real “from the gutter to the stars” kind of night, a very Buenos Aires night.
It was clear and warm, a full moon, and we went to La Nube, an outdoor club in the bosque of the Costanera, a club where dogs are welcome, and only the bar and the banos are in a building.
The roof, reached by a long spiraling ramp, is like floating in the trees, with view of the river. Sorta Cheto, but muy cool, especially on a summer nite.
Their usual fare is DJ sets of reggae, or samba or rock nacional, but they are having more live music this time of year.
We went to see Clan Caiman, one of our favorites.
The kind of band that only plays a few times a year, as all of the members have many other jobs and gigs.
The leader, Emilio Haro, is killing it right now as a record producer- in the last couple years he has produced some of the most interesting albums coming out of Argentina, including Carola Velaschi, the latest by Juana Molina, the latest by Axel Krygier, the upcoming record by OK Piramides, and more.
I tend to like almost every band he chooses to produce.
Clan Caimanis pychedelic trance with surf rock overtones, featuring the same drummer we saw earlier with Foto, along with lap steel and baritone guitar player Gonzalo Cordoba.
Its mesmerizing and hynotic beautiful music, and, set up on an outdoor stage in front of 30 meter tall trees, it was like being in Neverland, not the big city.
I have written about them a lot, I love all three of their albums, it was incredible.

But, after that was over, we took an uber to the industrial zone between the port and Villa Mugica, a pretty deserted no-mans land of huge warehouses and train tracks running down the middle of streets. Our destination was a gigantic block long building, the lower part of which is warehouse, the upper 2 or 3 floors offices.
Nowadays, its a gigantic rehearsal rental complex for bands- tiny office after tiny office, each wing of the building named after a famous rock nacional band. Its covered in grafitti and stickers, with the hulks of gigantic commercial reel to reel decks lurking in the hallways.
We were there for a birthday party, a friend who is a chef. A couple hundred people crowded the hallways, several offices, and a big terraza. There was an open bar,an open parilla serving gourmet choripans, and a cake cutting ceremony with a cake in the life size shape of the birthday boy's dog, which was, of course, filled with layers of dulce de leche.
2djs were playing in 2 different places, along with a rousing set by a punk band of bearded bros. Real punk- 3 chords, 3 lyrics, loud and pogoable. What they lacked in musicality, they made up for in enthusiasm.
The crowd was extremely varied- rich, poor, high fashion and cheap t shirts, broke ass artists and famous artists, musicians, and designers. Dogs were welcome, for the second time of the night.
It was like a squat in Berlin, or Andy Warhols factoryin NYC in the 70s.
Crazy, and only a kilometer from Patio Bullrich, but they only come out at night.
This is a city of secret contrasts, and I feel very lucky to be able to surf the wave of them.
Clan Caiman- if you can, see them live.

 

[Ries]

The rehearsal space building, which, of course, is a Centro Cultural. They have shows there. https://www.facebook.com/saldiaspolocultural/

 

[Ries]

The next musical event we went to see was another permutation of the everchanging relationships between musicians here.
In the USA, where I am most familiar with musicians, there is a lot of Siloing- a musician or fan in a given genre will know very little about other genres.
Here, it seems like many musicians play in different genres weekly.
The band we went to see, Impresionante, is a group of improvisers who all play all over the map.
2 of them, Wenchi Lazo on Guitar and Diego Voloschin on drums, played with Foto when we saw them at Chilavert.
Voloschin also drummed with Clan Caiman, and Emilio Haro, of Clan Caiman, has produced several records that each, respectively, appeared on.
But the band also contains Nico Sorin, who I have seen doing solo electronic music, as well as playing keyboards with La grande.
His most known work has been composing many tv and film soundtracks. Sorin is probably the most conventionally “famous”of the band.
The fourth member, bass player Franco Fontanarrosa, has also been on at least 20 albums, and is usually in a few bands at any given time.
Together, they are 100% improvisational, following each other into unexpected places.

Sometimes free jazz, sometimes funk, rock, or things that have no name.
Wenchi has a parlour trick where he essentially plays “slide” by using an old guitar string for a slide, but plucking and vibrating the string, with the resultant sound more like reverbed violin than a cowboy song.
These guys are very comfortable with the unknown,and the music wanders all about. There are parts where they could be sonic youth, other parts a less funky Electric Miles Davis.
Nico Sorin was looping his own vocals, then assigning them keys on his keyboard, so he could play “chords” of himself.

This show was at Planta Inclan, in Parque Patricio, a comfortable, small, adult space which is great to see music at.

The band was followed by one of a series of poet/musican collaborations that Inclan has been doing, called Procesadores de Textos, this one with Carola Zelaschi on turntables, and poet Francisca Lysionek. We enjoyed this quite a bit as well.
Completely different in every wayf rom the band, it was about everyday life, with the music subtle and mysterious almost ambient grooves.


Here is a video of Impresionante a couple of years ago. At the beginning, Wenchi, on the left, is doing the guitar string thing.

 

[Ries]

Right now Sorin has just arranged and conducted a concert at the Teatro Gran Rex called Police Dearranged, in which he combines a rock band, Eruca Sativa, a symphony orchestra, and a trio of female singers, with Stewart Copeland, drummer for the actual band, The Police.
This is based on an album Copeland did a couple of years ago. This was the Argentine version, but Copeland was, evidently totally game with it.
I did not get to see this show, but it does illustrate the incredible range of Sorin, and Argentine musicians in general.
A review of that show- https://www.lanacion.com.ar/especta...oncierto-sinfonico-para-evocar-a-nid18122025/

and here is some video from that show. You can see Sorin, excitedly conducting, wearing his red sneakers.
Eruca Sativa features Lulu Bertoldi on guitar, who is always great.

 

[Ries]

An interesting interview/review of Impresionante https://www.lacapital.com.ar/zoom/n...ioso-su-banda-el-festival-late-n10155844.html

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I know I've said this before but it might have been years ago but I always read the articles you post to this thread and I always enjoy them. Thank you @Ries

 

[Ries]

I know I've said this before but it might have been years ago but I always read the articles you post to this thread and I always enjoy them. Thank you @Ries

thank you.
I write to remember.
The fact that anyone else appreciates it is frosting on the cake, and makes me very happy.