Links for albums & mp3s provided by the artists for free download.
Forget about my ratings, that's pure guidance, this is it... wonderful year!
01 ALEGRANZA!, EL GUINCHO
This wasn’t even a 5-star album when I reviewed it, until this date I'm still consuming its complexity and progressiveness. For a hipsy alternative persona like me, who likes his pop well suited, his folk very radical and multi-linear phrasing in all art forms, Alegranza! is simply an orgasmic experience that just happened to arrive at the right moment and from the right location to be the leading record of the year. Every movement done by the album was followed, like finding out the album was getting released in the states and the deserving glorified attention it got from my favorite music sites. Music texture, ambitious ambiguity, coexisting loops, tropicalia, I could go on and on.
02 UN DIA, JUANA MOLINA
The day I found Mrs. Molina’s Son, a self-responsibility input its spell on me, sounds cheesy but is the truth, it’s because of her vision that Club Fonograma exists anyway. Placing her art on a pedestal or the standard of quality would only mistreat and manipulate my hearing, but understanding form in this or the platonic world changed my musical perception, Un Dia is a reaffirmation that music is emotion and emotion is a force that steps in between personal space and its infiltration with the individual next to you. Therefore comes a necessity to spread something I call distinctive knowledge, like the evangelicals, but cooler.
03 MTV UNPLUGGED, JULIETA VENEGAS
This is Julieta’s finest moment since Bueninvento and the best unplugged MTV Latinoamerica has produced yet. The Latin Grammys might have awarded Venegas an award for alternative album, but this is the year’s best pop album. In full command of her artistry, she makes every musician shine along and I can’t wait to hear the material all those talented guys have under their belt. The album brings her best from the time she worked with mysterious themes to the current muse that refreshed herself and found the feminine touches to consecrate her already masterful vision on both lyrics and instrumentation.
04 BRUNO EP, JOVENES Y SEXYS
This incredibly charming EP finds virtue in four gentle pieces of pure melodic atmosphere, a little jewel that serves as first impression from one of the most promising acts in Latin America. I’m still enchanted by the background noise in “Suerte”, the clocks and its successors in “El Reloj”, the roundness in “Gold Day” and their take on The Breeders’ “Divine Hammer.” This is a little jewel that doesn’t ask for permission to put its spell on you, the result is spellbinding and prosperous, this is where alternative pop draws its lines, and it’s up to the listener to give them a shape.
REVIEW. DOWNLOAD ALBUM. "SUERTE"
05 PRIETTO VIAJA AL COSMOS CON MARIANO, PRIETTO VIAJA AL COSMOS CON MARIANO
This band is Argentina’s rock most valuable medication; it’s a refreshing filter to the lost (or never recognized) sense of ambiguity. This is one not be overload on, it’s too heavy to drink it up in one listening. Its complexity stands on a shadowed cold alley of “Verano Fatal”, flourishing into the best non-single track of the year: “La carretera de los incendios.” The year’s best Latin rock album distances itself from its region chords not for the sake of it but because it feels like it, the best psychedelic album since Porter’s final episode Atemahawke.
06 TIJUANA SOUND MACHINE, NORTEC COLLECTIVE PRESENTS BOSTICH + FUSSIBLE
This album makes me happy. Now in global proportions, Nortec’s sound catapults Mexico’s music as it embraces it. Half of the Nortec project unleash a tour de force that landmarks what Latin Alternative music is and gives us hints of what’s to come. As a Mexican, it fulfills me culturally but doesn’t cage me in demographics; on the contrary, it expands my vision to perhaps a future moment where Mexico’s northern music could internationalize. Oh, and it’s plenty of fun to dance to it too.
REVIEW. “THE CLAP” (TOY SELECTAH REMIX)
07 LA MARAVILLA, ARCANGEL
Would I regret placing this album higher than a Calle 13 album?, perhaps in a future, we’ll see. But for the moment, I’m certain of something: Arcangel released the best reggaeton album ever made and nobody seems to notice. There’s very little culture analyzing Latin urban music, and those countries ahead in music journalism seem to have a prejudice on the tic tic tic beat that annoyed the heck out of us, but has proven to light its match like never before in “La Maravilla”, no record label supported the album and so stands as “unreleased”, but wait, jewels can’t survive locked somewhere in Puerto Rico. Arcangel took care of its improvised release, giving it transcendental life… via Rapidshare.
REVIEW. DOWNLOAD ALBUM. “INTRO” FEATURING TEMPO
08 TARAS BULBA, JESSY BULBO
We should’ve expected, still it took us by surprise and since its release I can’t stop playing it. Saga Mama was an indication of talent, but was only a rough draft; Taras Bulba actually sounds good and makes her an enfant-terrible in blossoming beauty. A gathering of clashes, garage punk, catchy tunes and progressive pop make it one of the year’s indispensables. Even its disfigurations and delicate errors are appreciated, it’s rough and brilliant. Seriously, this one makes the Vivian Girls’ tremendous album look bad.
09 LOS DE ATRAS VIENEN CONMIGO, CALLE 13
It might not be as glorious as their last masterpiece, but oh boy are these two guys ever going to disappoint? This is the fairytale Latin urban music had been waiting for, and we are serious when we place Residente as one of the world’s best MCs and catalog Visitante as a true visionary. They bitch-slap any obstacle on their way, including their collages; Ivy Queen should be crying rivers. It’s about identity, about alterations; it’s yet another jewel from Puerto Rico’s most radical mavericks.
10 ESCUELA DE ZEBRAS, JOE CREPUSCULO
Entering the Crepus world is a bizarre experience, uncomfortable even, but once there it starts to build boundaries for the unexpected. It unrolls itself like a hyper kid who isn’t rebelling towards traditional music; it’s just music from the heart. I know I’m repeating myself here, but if you want good vocalists go ahead and turn your TV set on Fox next month. Joe Crepusculo is raw, animalistic and straight-out genius. He is a story-teller, accentuates details and harmonizes them like no other. This is music for the occasion? What? Okay, it translates horribly. Musica para la ocasion.
REVIEW. DOWNLOAD ALBUM. “GABRIELA”
11 1981, Carrie
12 Parque Magico, Margarita [Artist of the Week]
13 Mediocre, Ximena Sariñana {REVIEW}
14 Nictografo, Lucio Mantel
15 Reptilectric, Zoe {REVIEW}
16 Sou, Marcelo Camelo {REVIEW}
17 Rio, Aterciopelados {REVIEW} {“28”}
18 Shake Away, Lila Downs {REVIEW}
19 At Carnegie Hall, Buena Vista Social Club {REVIEW} {“Changui Pal Monte"}
20 I Love Your Glasses, Russian Red {REVIEW}
21 En Ventura EP, En Ventura {REVIEW} {“Chantilly”} {Download Album}
22 Cosa Astral, Coconot {REVIEW} {“Conservad El Rayo”}
23 Nueva America, Quiero Club {REVIEW} {Showtime}
24 Picotero, Monareta {REVIEW} {“Me voy pa’l mar”}
25 Supercrepus, Joe Crepusculo {“El dia de las medusas”}
26 Presente, Ulises Hadjis {REVIEW} {“Lunes”}
27 Fledermaus, Domingo en Llamas {REVIEW} {“Trabalenguado”}
28 Tu Labio Superior, Christina Rosenvinge
29 Un Mañana, Luis Alberto Spinetta
30 Homeless Hero, Bufi {REVIEW} {“Homeless Hero”} {Download Album}
31 Gracias, Omara Portuondo {REVIEW}
32 El Manifiesto Desastre, Nacho Vegas
33 Bam Bam, Bam Bam {“Sin Patas Traseras”} {Download Album}
34 Dos Lagrimas, Diego El Cigala {REVIEW}
35 Who Said Party?, Cof Cof {REVIEW} {“Forbidden Cocktail”} {Download Album}
36 Los Emigrantes, 60 Tigres {“El Motivo”} {Download Album}
37 Bestiola, Hidrogenesse {REVIEW}
38 En Ningun Lugar, Charades
39 Ronroneando, Sr. Chinarro
40 Amigos EP, Nuuro {REVIEW} {“ABC”} {Download Album}