
La música de Las malas amistades
a review by david thorpe ofrelease format La música de Las malas amistades by Las malas amistades (CD Album)
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In the present whirlwind that is the imperfect marriage of technology and commerce in the name of human progress, it's all too easy to lose perspective on the beauty of the music making process in its' multifarious forms, which is why this slightly mysterious record from "Las malas amistades" is timed perfectly. Formed in Bogota, Colombia in 1994 by a group of friends (none of whom are musicians), they simply decided to record their own musical journey onto a number of tapes, which here have been compiled onto one super CD. In their own words they have "kept on making music that can be traced to such diverse influences as The Shaggs, The Young Marble Giants...and popular Latinoamerican romantic ballads, the kind you hear on the buses of Bogota when you get a funky driver." Indeed, the results are a mixture of charming simplicity, dodgy timing and hissy recording, exactly the kind of music that is not only great fun to listen to but also strangely addictive. Toy pianos, cheap casio drum machines and guitars have been mixed together into twenty eight sketches, ideas which are perfect in this small (two or three minute) form but aren't necessarily fleshed out into songs. I'm reminded of Pram's first demo tapes (released as "Gash"), who then went through a process of fleshing out their ideas in a most fantastic fashion over the next few albums. It's unlikely I think that Las malas amistades will be able to do this as their project is based on a different set of people for each song (and they're committed to certain freedom of association within the group), but this CD stands as a monument to the diversity of the music making process, and is a great listen as well. La música de Las malas amistades is a self published, self distributed CD. For availabiliy or comments email the group as malasamistades@yahoo.com or mankal@hotmail.com.
Posted by
david thorpe
at 00:00, 30 Mar 2000