Orquesta El Macabeo - La Maldición del Timbal - LP (includes CD within)

BLACK VINYL ONLY

Out of the depths of a nation’s sociopolitical struggle comes one of the most mature albums Puerto Rican music will see this year. Orquesta el Macabeo unleashes their 4th studio album, La Maldición del Timbal, an eight track bombshell that proves how far their spirited blend of indie salsa, punk rock attitude and afro-boricua beats have come along. Latin dance music for the head and heart as well as the feet.

This is much more than their usual musical mayhem. For example, Macabeo now goes deep into the Puerto Rican diaspora’s feeling of nostalgic desperation, with tracks such as "Crucero", where they explain how they long to arrive “to a free port”, a clear allusion to the commonwealth’s controversial political limbo. More human maturity: on the track "Armonía", they finally find a way to approach how love can lie to people, something they tried to do on past albums, but couldn’t quite nail. This time, they sigh, “it’s about living with the lie of living in harmony”.

We present a band way past their teens now. Their fans can still remember those times when the fellows from Macabeo where frowned upon by their more purist peers, because of their sudden success with early work such as the classic Salsa Macabra (2010). They’ve always had lyrics. But now they are more than salsa renegades or juvenile pranksters of the afro-Caribbean music scene, if you may. The salsa big band is mature enough to talk about the humane, daily life routine: “The routine that tarnishes my retina”, they sing in "Rutina". They are centered enough to take on the ugliness of religious hustlers: “The goodwill to give money to the pastor!!,” they cry out in "Buena voluntad".

Such smartness goes hand by hand with a newfound poise in their afinque. Their proverbial street-fighting brass line suddenly dropkicks among a much more depurated percussion line, like in "Carrera", a complex theme about competition and age. Here, Macabeo shines musically, as if they relished the challenge of dropping a ballroom sound in front of verses full of swagger.

Yeah, their character as a band is sharper in this album. They still will, however, cut your face with a blade: their guapería (boldness) hits like a lightning bolt in "Saco’e Trampa" (Bag ‘o tricks), where lead singer Mofongo calls out war on a traitor “because what you do here, you pay here… you hide like an insect, but I’m watching you”.

The rabid coming of age of Macabeo makes even more sense, when you see the art on their album cover, done by none other than perennial rebellious art-god Joe Petagno. This master of heavy metal art, responsible for album covers of bands such as Led Zeppellin and Motorhead, produced Macabeo’s cover, a psychedelic work that dignifies the fight endured by this island nation and their musical scene. After all, Puerto Rico and their artists are fighting a "Maldición Colonial" or “colonial damnation”, as it is explained on the title of the last track of this album, possibly Macabeo’s most depurated work to date.

A truly international co-op release between eight different labels in eight different countries: Peace & Rhythm (USA), Discos de Hoy (Puerto Rico), Chateaudisk (Japan), Lucha Libre (Ecuador), Maldita Cruz (Chile), Puercords (Mexico), Läjä (Brazil) and Entes Anomicos (Germany). International cooperation at it's finest!

1. Crucero
2. Armonía
3. Saco e trampa
4. La función
5. La buena voluntad
6. Rutina
7. Carrera
8. La maldición colonial

"La Maldición del Timbal is the latest and fiercest installment in the saga of the big, punk family that is Orquesta El Macabeo. There is no compartmentalizing, no posturing, just painful honesty, delivered via sarcastic comedy and cynical lyrics. An album full of complex melodies and references to more psychedelic ‘70s salsa and jazz, using tropicalia clichés to its advantage." -- Amaya Garcia, Bandcamp Daily

Macabeo es una de esos casos excepcionales de la salsa...su música no puede ser encasillada en la gaveta del sonido típico boricua, mas bien, su forma de atacar cada melodia e interpretación -tambien sus textos- podría ser el de una orquesta de al lado del Hudson...Sus componentes provenían de géneros tan ajenos a la salsa como el punk, el hardcore o el reagge.
Crucero es un cha cha cha galáctico y ecléctico mientras Armonía presenta una salsa clásica. Saco e Trampa destaca el solo de Hector Lind Ortiz en el trombón y de Julio Ortiz Luquis en las congas. La Maldición Colonial es una decarga que se transforma en cha cha cha. -- DJ El Chino, Solar Latin Club

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