SLIM'S and Noise Pop Festival 2020 Presents COMBO CHIMBITA + Y La
BAMBA WITH SAN CHA AND MARINERO TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, 10/25 @ 10AM!
DOORS 7 / SHOW 8
COMBO CHIMBITA
Through her folkloric mystique, otherworldly psychedelia, and a dash
of enigmatic punk, Ahomale by Combo Chimbita catapults the sacred
knowledge of our forebears into the future. Their second studio album
and Anti- Records debut sees the visionary quartet drawing from
ancestral mythologies and musical enlightenment to unearth the
awareness of Ahomale, the album’s cosmic muse. Comprised of Carolina
Oliveros’ mesmeric contralto, illuminating storytelling and fierce
guacharaca rhythms, Prince of Queens’ hypnotic synth stabs and
grooving bass lines, Niño Lento’s imaginative guitar licks, and
Dilemastronauta’s powerful drumming, the lure and lore of Combo
Chimbita comes into existence.
The legend begins with their first EP, 2016’s El Corredor del
Jaguar, and followed up with the occult psychedelia of Abya Yala. In
2019’s Ahomale, the New York-by-way-of-Colombia troupe fuse the
perennial rhythms of the Afro-Latinx diaspora with a modern-day
consciousness, while tracing the prophetic traditions of our ancestry.
“The more we’ve played music together, the more we began to
discover things within ourselves that we were previously unaware of,
almost like an energy. And that’s being communicated through our
music,” explains Prince of Queens in the making of Ahomale.
Inspired by a Yoruba term, Ahomale, meaning adorer of ancestors,
Oliveros reveals her quest to connect with ancestral cosmology, which
the Combo pays homage to. “Ahomale resurges from the visions that
we’ve been having via our music and life, and the lyrics reflect a
manifestation passed on through our ancestors and the gods,” she
explains. “I wanted the album to convey the search for spiritual
awareness, which ultimately serves as a revelation.” In a similar
spirit, Niño Lento conveys: “The protagonist of this album whose
name is Ahomale possesses the ability to communicate ancestral wisdom
through the music.”
With the help of producer Daniel Schlett (The War on Drugs, Modest
Mouse), the group’s rootsy experimental alchemy and metal
strangeness take centerfold. Oliveros howls, yowls and chirps with
gut-wrenching emotion, like on the languid mirage of “El Camino,”
or plaintive frenzy of the title track. Whether rock raw and soulful
or bewitching like a shaman in a spiritual ceremony, her voice is
always a multifaceted wonder. “Brillo Más Que El Oro (La Bala
Apuntándome)” boasts alluring vintage synths that seem to time
travel through the lush tropics of yore; then, the mood intensifies
when its bridge brilliantly crosses into a spellbinding chant sung in
unison: “Y si digo que / Que ahora ya lo se” (“And if I say that
I now know”). “Testigo” is pure melodic witchcraft in action
that strips away wordly façades into something bare and beautiful:
“Desde principio a fin, yo siempre di mi verdad” (“from
beginning to end, I always gave my truth), the singer vulnerably
croons against a whirling guitar and galloping percussions.
Ultimately, Ahomale is a catharsis of divine feminine force helmed by
their powerhouse vocalist, laden with the teachings from a bygone era,
in tune with the spiritual realm. “Our spirit and energy have passed
through multiple generations,” says Prince of Queens. “We might
not be open or allowed to explore it because of Western society’s
conditions. But the idea is that we are receiving messages from the
past, and from our ancestors that each one of us carry.” In nearly
40 minutes of eye-opening thrills and chills, the listener experiences
the pedagogy of Ahomale, journeying through her epiphanies and
enlightenment. “Ahomale is a warrior, not the sword and shield type,
but a woman who is ready to listen to her heart, follow her intuition
and connect with her ancestors,” Oliveros avows.
Y LA BAMBA
Y La Bamba has been many things, but at the heart of it is
singer-songwriter Luz Elena Mendoza’s inquisitive sense of self.
Their fifth record, Mujeres, carries on the Portland-based band’s
affinity for spiritual contemplation, but goes a step further in
telling a story with a full emotional spectrum. Coming off Ojos Del
Sol, one of NPR’s Top 50 Albums of 2016, Mujeres exhibits the scope
of Mendoza’s artistic voice like never before. “Soy como soy,”
Mendoza says, and that declaration is the bold— even political—
statement that positions Mujeres to be Y La Bamba’s most unbridled
offering yet.
The record exists in the post-2016 landscape of a national identity
crisis, and Mendoza explores what it means to be a Mexican American
woman by leading us through places we are afraid to go.
Mujeresventures in to the discomfort of the stories we tell ourselves.
Those of our past, our futures. We all have these stories somewhere
inside of us, but with Y La Bamba, Mendoza forges new narratives from
old stories of heritage and family, tracing history while forging
modern chicana feminism.
“Music is an extension of everything I have inside. It’s how I
emote,” Mendoza says. The raw honesty of Mujeres is in fact the raw
honesty of Mendoza. Armed with the emotionality of traditional música
mexicana and the storytelling of American folk, Y La Bamba’s
artistry is not just their musical ability but Mendoza’s search for
unadulterated truth. It is in an ancestral, spiritual journey in which
Mendoza comes to terms with the influence and limitations of her
upbringing. Mendoza’s experience of childhood summers in the San
Joaquin Valley listening to mariachi, of being raised strict Catholic
by immigrant parents, of being a woman having to prove herself to the
boys, paints strokes of both melancholy and healing on the tracks.
“From the way that my family struggles, to the way they shoot the
shit… it’s so different from whiteness,” Mendoza says. “It’s
a different dimension.”
Y La Bamba exists in the dimension of the Mexican American
imagination: somewhere cynical and optimistic at the same time. While
there is a celebration of the Mexican creativity that has informed
Mendoza’s life, there is a darker side to reconcile with. Where do
mujeres fit in to the American story? What are the sins for which we
are all guilty? How do different generations interact with the world?
How can a culture become visible without tokenization? It is no
surprise that in Mujeres, Y La Bamba’s first record with Mendoza at
the helm of production, Mendoza contemplates these questions to tell
her story. But it is not just Mendoza’s story. Challenging a
narrative and dealing with the emotionality of that effort— that is
everyone’s story.
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29/02/2020 Last update