Ultrapop, Argentina
Rating: 76
by Pablo Acuña
I remember reading Carlos Reyes' sorrowful review of Entre Ríos last album, Era. In this entry Carlos expressed his affliction towards Sebastian Carreras' struggle to adapt to the new media that ended up putting Entre Ríos in a indefinite hiatus. The truth is that Indice Virgen's founder never said goodbye to his band but decided to separate himself from the record industry and the habits of users treating all electronic music as indie music: "75 percent of the content that is uploaded to the Internet is uploaded by users and by doing so, they are feeding the corporations. Everything is devalued and is one reason to sense the music in a different way than how I did ten years ago".
Carreras could have opted to keep despising the way music works within the media, but instead he embraces it and uses it for his own benefit. In his new LP, Saga Catálogo Intervenciones, Entre Ríos defies the habitual form of releasing and promoting an album, by developing a series of interventions that include a concept performance where the viewer is introduced to a sonic and visual experience. Each of the interventions are named after a song, and that song is deconstructed live in art galleries in Buenos Aires. Carreras innovation is a beautiful reminder of his words in 2011: "Entre Ríos is a concept. The idea was setting the concept before the person's own name." While Carreras could be viewed as a suffering, airlessness kind of rock-star-dictator (he is the sole survivor of the first band lineup), appearances are often deceiving. And make no mistake about it: SCI is one of the most unabashedly sincere works of indie/electro pop I’ve come across this year. The hooks on are indelible regardless of instrumentation, containing an air around each element that is as palpable as the product's immaculate sound. First single, "Ambiental" has Julieta Brotsky displaying through her vocals, Carreras' sense of emotional urgency that makes this album special.
Rosario Ortega's velvety, heated vocal take on "Otra Vez", remains one of the most nakedly beautiful pieces of singing I've heard this year, in any genre. When lines like “Una vez tuve una historia, yo después tuve una herida. Otra vez tuve un deseo así que yo también sufrí derrotas,” on "Otra Vez" or "Me hiciste sentir que todavía había algo" on "Tu Siempre," are set to the emotive sounds that Entre Ríos trade in, they sound towering, impassioned, and life-affirming. SCI cannot be separated in singles (and that's a reversion for many people). Every track in this album is a piece of the puzzle that Carreras is trying to put together in our own personal experience. I find really ironic that the words Daniel Melero wrote 27 years ago describe exactly my own experience with SCI. The last track of the album is a cover for Melero's gem "Lineas" that with emotional directness truthfully claims: "Hay canciones que se llevan algo de uno cuando terminan. Son como romances que se llevan algo de uno cuando terminan". Welcome back Entre Ríos.