For his first project since
Calle 13 went on hiatus in 2014, musical director and producer Eduardo "Visitante" Cabra and Dominican singer/songwriter
Vicente García collaborate on
Trending Tropics. Cabra's manifesto for the album is: "Music without a face in the age of the selfie." Its loosely linked songs probe the dominant ways that technology interacts with reality in 21st century culture, and in some cases supplants it.
Trending Topics was recorded in New York, Puerto Rico, Chile, Colombia, Spain, and the Dominican Republic. While the intention was to focus on music rather than personality, these men (with co-producer and mixing engineer Fabrice Dupont) ironically enlisted a star-studded cast of singers, rappers, and instrumentalists including
Ziggy Marley, Ana Tijoux, Li Saumet (
Bomba Estereo),
Ile (Cabra's sister, whose debut solo album he produced), Frank Baez, Amayo (
Antibalas), AcentOh,
Wiso G., Pucho y Guille (
Vetusta Morla), and former
David Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar. In concert, these songs are performed by a robot who fronts a live band.
Lyrics are mostly in Spanish but occasionally English. The rainbow of musical styles presented here crisscross the Americas, the Caribbean, and North Africa. Alongside an army of samplers and drum machines are layers of electric guitars, organic percussion, Latin folk instruments, chanted backing vocals, and boisterous horns. Recording techniques are contemporary and experimental, a natural fit for this disorienting yet captivating batch of sounds. First single "Elintelné (feat.
Wiso G.)" is a collision of synthetic, charging punk rhythms, staccato electric guitars in flamenco cadences, and chanted vocals by Carolina and Jenny Nunez, in a narrative about how our obsession with electronic screens will eventually crush us. (The Kacho Lopez-directed video is hysterically funny.) "Silicone Love," performed by Tijoux, looks at how intimacy has been twisted inside-out in the tech age. Flutes (played by
Garcia) and buzzing synths, distorted kalimbas, and synthetic loops fuel the backdrop behind her snarling rap, punctuated by a soulful backing chorus from the Nunez sisters.
Marley's appearance on "Reasons to Fight" follows a droning, Middle Eastern modal string intro that gives way to brooding funk and dubwise rhythms. Afro-Caribbean funk, bomba, and hip-hop outline the verses by
Garcia and AcentOh in "On Fire" with North African guitars cutting the mix atop ritualistic chants. "La Enfermedad," sung by Saumet, creates a rhythm collision of
B-52s-esque wonkiness, punchy Afro-Cuban jazz rhythms, and Afrobeat guitars. "Dandy del Congo" with Amayo weds electro cumbia to funky Middle Eastern pop. Charging electro, indie rock, reggaetón, and hard-grooving Latin pop form the musical backdrop for closer "Cyber Monday" delivered by
Vetusta Morla with razor-sharded guitars and jazzy horns careening through the mix.
Trending Tropics is musically provocative -- even in the wildly creative realm of Latin pop it stands apart.
Garcia and Visitante's songs and charts observe the cyber age with an everyman's gaze, a street comedian's wit, and a philosopher's critical eye. Their ingenious musical hybrid is danceable, singable, and completely irresistible. ~ Thom Jurek