Fellow fonograma critic Pierre Lestruhaut refers to "En la naturaleza (4-3-2-1)" as the best song of the decade thus far. The more I think about it, the closer I come to agree with him (there's another chilean song to beat in my opinion). Truth is, Gepe never ceases to surprise us, and for his latest single he has recruited noneother than peruvian sensation Wendy Sulca (whose rendition of "Wrecking ball" was a truly pleasing surprise). While the unlikeliness of such collaboration worried us a little (kitsch and exploitation run on a very fine line), we trusted Gepe's and producer Cristian Heyne's sensebilities to resolve the song putting musical virtue in front of novelty. And they sure have done it.
Like all of Gepe's first singles, "Hambre" is grand and more than the sum of its parts. Bold percussions, syncopated horns, hip-hop flirtations, and the catchiness of the andino music that glues it all together are part of a narrative that keeps unveiling its charm from beginning to end. Whether some will appreciate its function as plain escapism, we should look into its the deeper romanticism: our insatisfiable hunger for leisure, partying, and our constant search to fulfill emotional/sexual deficit. Gepe's fifth album should see the commercial light by the summer.
