Escucharemos

Just when summer seems to be nearing its end, as it slips beyond the mountains into the unseen crispness of autunm, Barcelona’s El Guincho (Pablo Díaz-Reixa) holds the warm sunlight overhead by spicing things up with the release of the second single off his upcoming album Pop Negro— FM Tan Sexy. Last month El Guincho released Bombay, the first of nine tracks off his second LP. You can download both songs at his website. Pablo Díaz-Reixa has worked hard over the last few years to move his sound forward from Alegranza and Folías; “I did some research on radio hits/big selling singles in North America, South America, England and Spain in the late 70′s, 80′s and early 90′s. I found out that a massive percentage of these hits were engineered (sometimes also produced) by just around 40/50 different guys.”

• El Guincho - FM Tan Sexy

“I started studying what makes them different but also what they had in common and I found out some really interesting coincidences. The reverbs they used (except for more ‘so-eighties’ kind of tracks, all the rest were more keen on using different tap tempo delays as verbs rather tan proper springs/halls); the backing vocals production (there are super interesting coincidences between Michael Jackson/Quincy, U2, Bryan Ferry/Rhett Davies era productions, Mariah Carey/Walter Afanasyev, Nile Rodgers, Teddy Riley, Paco Trinidad in Spain, etc.); the way most of these guys used line + reamping style instead of mic’ing everything when tracking; the way they used stereo image and how they distributed sounds on space (this is where I found less coincidences and was therefore more inspired). I mean, I could go on and on about this if you want, I’ve been obsessed with this for last 3 years…” The new sound has reaped the benefits of Pablo’s determination to push his music forward (he sailed around Northern European tourists around The Canary Islands to earn money to mix the album).

Influenced by the works of Caetano Veloso, Animal Collective, and La Lupe among others, El Guincho has set a goal for the tone and feeling of the new album. “I guess the main sentiment is a sort of nostalgic love for the music that I heard on FM radio as a kid/teenager, that ‘promise’ that music gives you, not eternal/eternity because pop music is not supposed to be like that, but that thing you feel when you’re on a car with your friends or family and you listen to a certain hit and it makes you think you want to be inside of that. I wanted to write something based on that. Not plain hits, but a whole album that makes you feel that thing, arrangements that can take your mind that state if you know what I mean.” (Via)

Pop Negro hits stores September 14th via Young Turks

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