Los Brothers- Review

A quick Review

1. Intro f Arcangel
I’m bored already. I get it, I get it. The world is ending yada yada, armies of cyborgs roam the steets in military formations, you’ve seen a sci fi movie blah blah, you’re a gargoyle blahblahblah. However, I still love Arcangel, though he doesnt sound good live (since I never see him live – NONISSUE), his flow is as sexy as ever. The song is dark and plodding and generally lacking exuberance or vibrance.

2. Randy- Terminamos Agresivo
Kinda bouncy and ok, I’d dance to it, but I wouldn’t rush to the floor or anything. But the beat is decent.

3. Arcangel and De La Ghetto- Te Estoy Buscando
Too spacy at the beginning and the breathy vocals just arent getting it, A sounds like he has been gargling with Drano.Its BORING.

4. Cosculluela y Jomar- No Le Temo a Los Nombres
Ah, nothing like a song that begins with the sounds of urban warfare and some Don Omarish mournful singing. I dont like funeral dirges. I dont like this. Its slow and the vocals lack the required urgency and bite to cut through the music. Ok, if they sharpened the gunfire, upped the tempo a tiny bit and made the bass go BOOM, i would like it a little.

5.Magnate and Valentino F Arcangel Morir de Amor
Well, what a surprise. Burbling electrohappy sounds and then, what? Is this CHEERFUL? Well, its pop-py but well, think I may enjoy it. Is that the trick, place a mediocre cheerful track after a few slow dull dreary ones so it POPS in comparioson and you LOVE it?
I dont do music, but it sounds muddy and needs to be a lil clearer to sound as happy as it needs to.

6. Khriz y Angel – Seras Mia
Blurble blurbrle, you know, I sort of like this. Its high energy and I dont listen to reggaeton to depress me, so Im game.

7.Joel- Se Fue
Do I hear rain? Is that rain? A genre blending plaintive ballad that would work much better if the singer could, you know, sing.Oooh, this is sneaky, my ears dont like it, but Im dancing in my chair because my body is conditioned to respond to the beat merengue invariably makes me feel joyful.

8. Lina G- The Party Getting Started
1. A chick is singing. 2. Its in English (partially). But Imma give it a chance, Im gonna try. Well, I cant listen to the whole thing, but if you like like Kat de Luna and Lisa Lisa and stuff, you should like this. It gets better in the middle, ok if it breaks down and gets super nasty then I can tolerate it, but its going to have to reach that part soon. It didnt.

9. Mario VI and La Sista- Dos Amigos Dos Amantes
I like Mario VI and La Sista doesnt count as a chick, because her voice doesnt make me cringe. This shit is the hottest on the cd thus far. Its about an 8/10 but I cant be too picky. I would add a TINY bit more intensity, ramp it up a little. This one will make it onto the iPod so I can irritate the good citizens of the city with my particular variant of noise pollution.

10. Nicky Jam- Dime Si Tu Quieres
Decent beat obscured by too much “i love you, i love you” and the sound of lil kids playing atari. I hate Nicky Jam.

11. Jowell- Hazte La Loca
Jowell “el mas suelto”. hazte la loca. Hey, I dont need to hear the song, this already sounds like my kind of party. You know, thats the problem, this cd never gets loose, never gets crazy.I want it to be a lil more acelerao.

12. Diel- Se Te Toco
Oh yeah, I’ve heard this, didnt Zion do this on Los Benjamins? A rather droning bachaton with some vocordery vocals. I would like it if I hadnt heard it 2 million times already. The pitch of the entire song seems off, it is very hard for me to listen to.

13 Fade- Dont Stop
Ok, fine, only 2 more songs to go, I will listen. Another Ziony song. If I were 25 I would love this.

14. Alex Killer- Deja Que TE Toquen
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its the LAST SONG!!! I like the beat, but it sounds really Los Benjaminesque and I dont want to hear it. Oh crap, but the beat does kinda grab me and beat wins over vocals every time.

What if the cd doesnt suck, what if my speakers are just all screwy? Nah, it sucks.

Final Analysis, not worth buying but a few tracks are danceworthy.

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Apocalypse Dembow

Ok, it doesn’t quite rhyme. But I like it, so it stays.

I like the term “apocalyptic reggaeton” to describe this variant of the genre. The sound is pretty aggressive with a lot of sonic references to horror movies, sci-fi movies and war. Gunfire, marching, sirens etc.. You know what I mean, Don Omar in his Mad Max outfit. Actually, thats a bit Post Apocalyptic. I’m thinking full on Urban Techno War Zone here.

I don’t watch tv much, or movies for that matter. But even I get the references and when I hear this, I see the cyborg armies and roaming band of warriors.

When I’m frustrated or angry  this is what I play. Headbanging reggaeton style.

So, here you go, in the interest of education, I post some of my favorite hard hitting super aggressive reggaeton mp3s.

Apocalypse Dembow

Don Omar, Tego Calderon , Wisin y Yandel- La Calle Me Llama

(A version of this is song 1 on my iPod and if I forget to select a playlist, my alarmclock plays this to wake me up in the mornings. I’d never paid much attention, but the lyrics are appropriate. “…quisiera quedarme, pero la calle me llama”.)

Franco “El Gorila”- Duro Mueven

Baby Rasta y Nengo Flow- Tirale

Dalmata- Nos Matamos

Arcangel- El Pistolon Remix

Brugal- Creo que Conmigo Jugaste

High Rollers Family- El Poder del Jefe

Manny Yow- Ella Se Acelera

Albert y Esquizo- Paramelo Ahi

How about some Q & A? You dont have to answer, of course, but I like to ponder such things.

What age and gender do you imagine the artists to be?

Nationality? Race? Income level?

What age, gender and nationality do they presume their audience to be?

Would my grandmother or a 5 year old from rural China respond to this like I do, or is the feel totally due to context? I can’t imagine anyone taking this to be HAPPY music, but does it sound inherently bellicose or do years of listening to sci-fi and horror soundtracks and watching Terminator movies train me to hear it that way?

Does my 12 year old daughter hear it like I do, or is it just a lot of random noise? I’m old enough that I hear/see Blade Runner, Gotham City and Dick Tracy. I suspect my young friends hear movies so new I cant even begin to name them!

I dont have the answers, but I like to ask the questions!! Why? Dunno.

Well, I wrote this post last week, but I read this morning about someone who made a physics rap song its huge on Youtube.”Rap and physics are culturally miles apart,” McAlpine, a science writer at CERN, wrote to the Lansing State Journal in an e-mail last week, “and I find it amusing to try and throw them together.”

And on one hand, I felt her 100%. Cute. On the other, I felt that there was sort of a cascade of meaning, if that makes any sense. If physics and rap are culturally far apart, does that not also imply that rappers and physicists are worlds apart? Does that also imply that rap fans and physicists are worlds apart? Is the humor, which stems from the juxtaposition of 2 concepts that seem to be polar opposites, a bit arrogant and racist?

I listen to reggaeton. I used to listen to rap. I am a female. I have a degree in Computer Science and I, while certainly no physicist, am rather science oriented. As is my architect, hiphop loving brother. And my pool playing “motherfucker” spouting engineer father. Perhaps one of us would find it intriguing to make a rap about architecture or engineering- computer or otherwise. But to fill a niche, to combine our interests, NOT to make it a Talking Dog sort of spectacle. You know- the content is forgettable, the delivery nothing special, but ITS A TALKING DOG? Thats FUNNY!!!

If it is funny because no one would ever think to combine rap and physics, because of the ABSURDITY of a rapper rapping about physics OR a physicists discussing his science in rap I sort of find it a tiny bit offensive. It um, it feels like blackface to me. And I don’t like it. If she hadn’t made that comment, I probably would be merely amused. “Look, someone likes rap and physics and combined the two”. But because she framed it as if the idea of the 2 things occuring together in nature were sooooo strange- meh. I dislike it. By extension, I hear her saying that I am strange and an anomaly. I dont like what that implies.

Mind you, I am looking for things to take offense at! Its what I do,so don’t go complaining that all I do is complain (unless that is what you do as well, and then really you should understand).

Well, now that I have found a way to post some free reggaeton mp3s to download and wonder about the cultural references and context of those songs AND complain about that news story and people in general, I’m content to end this post. Enjoy the music, unless you’re a namby pamby 80 year old pacifist woman.

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