sábado, 21 de julio de 2012

REVIEW de "SPANISH IS BEAUTIFUL" por PHILIP SHERBURNE para la revista SPIN.

 


Somewhere in Ibiza, ca. 1989: A suave gentleman, nationality unknown, with an inverse pyramid of tanned skin glowing beneath the icy white of his unbuttoned shirt, is cornering his prey at the dark end of the bar. “I want to tell you something,” he purrs. “Something about your language, about your roots.” Strobe lights flash in time to the robo-disco throb. “What are you waiting for? Sing in Spanish,” he whispers, drawing closer. “Spanish is beautiful…”

That’s one possible interpretation, in any case, of DJs Pareja‘s “Spanish Is Beautiful,” released last year on London’s History Clock label. DJs Pareja (which loosely translates as “The DJ Couple”) are Argentina’s Mariano Caloso and Diego Irasusta; since 1999, they have been fusing classic dance-music tropes with a sort of arch avant-gardism — a combination evident in a 2000 mix CD that brought together the glitch minimalism of Alva Noto, Oval, and Porter Ricks with songs by Madonna, Culture Club, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. In 2009 they turned up on Matias Aguayo and Gary Pimiento’s Cómeme label (translation: “Eat Me”); now Cómeme are giving away an in-house remix of “Spanish Is Beautiful.” If anything, it’s even sleazier, darker, and more twisted than the original. Acid squiggles drip like cold sweat beneath dry-ice blasts, and disembodied phrases from Black Box’s “Ride on Time” weave in and out of the mix, reminders of a dance floor that feels impossibly far away. Somewhere in the fog, hovering just beyond pupils swollen to the size of dinner plates, our yacht-hopping Lothario is whispering: “What are you waiting for…”