listening to this for the 5th time right now. holy piece of music straight out of another beautiful galaxy! <3

Meridian Brothers are back with a new studio album, the bizarre and wonderful ‘Salvadora Robot’. Heading deeper into the tropical rhythms of Latin America and the Caribbean each song on the album focuses on a different style and playfully twists it into Meridian Brothers’s surreal landscape. Released on Soundway Records on 16th June the album was recorded at Eblis Álvarez’s appropriately named Isaac Newton Studios in Bogota, Colombia.

Originally formed in 1998 it was the previous album ‘Deseperanza’ that brought Álvarez’s Meridian Brothers to the attention of the wider world. Released worldwide in 2012, the album’s unique aesthetic and freaked-out blend of Latin rhythms and psychedelic grooves won him new fans the world over. DJ and tastemaker Gilles Peterson selected ‘Guaracha U.F.O (No Estamos Solos...)’ as his favourite track of 2012.

‘Deseperanza’ focussed heavily on salsa rhythms but on his new release Álvarez based each track in a different Latin American style. For example ‘Somos los Residentes’ finds it inspiration in Dominican Republic merengue while ‘Baile ultimo….’ is a slow and sad reggaeton. The lyrics talk of a man who has been sent to the electric chair because he was dancing too much reggaeton, a style that isn’t accepted as “good taste” within Colombia.

The release of ‘Deseperanza’ brought them to Europe for the first time, making appearances across Europe and at some of the prestigious festival including Roskilde and Transmusicales. The band will be returning to Europe this summer. 

Pre-order

Meridian Brothers - El gran pájaro de los Andes (Instrumental)

Agrupación ilegal los imparciales - Media hora de cumbia 

http://agrupacionilegallosimparciales.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/losimparciales

Grabado y Mezclado en "Jacarandá" en Diciembre del 2013 por Martin Perrone y Mat Soilder. http://www.facebook.com/jacaranda.estudio
Versiones Dub Meets Mat Soilder. 
Diseño: Lucila Herrera Broner http://www.facebook.com/laalcaucila

@2014. Reservados todos los derechos de los autores, compositores y de los interpretes. SADAIC. Industria Argentina. 
Todos los temas pertenecen a Matias Soldano, excepto 5:Villondo, 7: Hermosa, 10: Popolizio.

Cumbia Psicodelica (Dub)

sidestepper - come see us play

06 - Fauna - Hongo x Hongo

Las Olas de la Mar (Martina Camargo, Alé Kumá)

El Botellon (uproot andy rmx)

A mediados del 2009 el FRENTE CUMBIERO invitó a Bogotá al legendario productor de dub Mad Professor, como parte del proyecto Incubator del British Council, con el objetivo de realizar un encuentro sonoro entre la cumbia y el dub. Durante 3 días y bajo la orientación de Mad Professor y su hijo Joe Ariwa, se grabaron en los estudios de la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Javeriana varios temas para ser tratados bajo la estética del dub. Además de grabar composiciones originales del FRENTE, parte importante del proyecto buscaba reunir a músicos claves de la escena bogotana a improvisar y crear juntos en estudio.

De esas improvisaciones salieron 3 composiciones colectivas, que se suman a 4 originales del FRENTE para un total de 7 temas que fueron remezclados con técnicas propias del dub por Mad Professor en su estudio ARIWA en Londres. El resultado de este disco, además de convertirse en uno de los primeros encuentros tangibles entre la cumbia y el dub, aporta un nuevo sonido colombiano al poderoso movimiento de cumbia continental.

¡GUACHARACA TRANSNACIONAL! 
credits 
released 01 November 2010 
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Temas 1,4,5,6 
Mario Galeano Toro: Bajo, guacharaca / Pedro Ojeda: Batería, timbal / Eblis Alvarez: Electrónica / Andrés Martínez: Guitarra / Chongo Puello: Alegre, Caja / Marco Fajardo: Clarinete / Juan Francisco Duque: Trompeta / Oswald Macías: Trombón / Diego Tunjano: Saxo Barítono

Temas 2,3,7 
Mario Galeano: Guacharaca, melódica / Urian Sarmiento (Curupira): Alegre / Pedro Ojeda (Palanca): Batería, Timbal / Lucho Gaitán (Mojarra Eléctrica): Guitarra / Andrés Martinez (Monareta): Guitarra cortesía Nacional Records / Javier Morales (Jipijam y raspacanilla): Acordeón / Jose Miguel Vega "El Profe" (La 33): Trombón / Jairo Alfonso Barrera (Alerta Kamarada): Saxo Alto / Pablo Araoz (Alerta Kamarada): Bajo Eléctrico / Liliana Saumet (Bomba Estéreo): Voz / Javier Fonseca (Alerta Kamarada): Voz / Kiño (Kmusic): Voz / Shaun Turner: Voz

Temas 1,5,6 compuestos por Mario Galeano Toro; 6 por Mario Galeano y Sonido Martines; 2,3,7 Composiciones colectivas.

Versiones Dub (8-14) mezcladas y producidas por Mad Professor y Joe Ariwa en Ariwa Studios (Londres) 
Versiones limpias (1-7) mezcladas y producidas por Manuel Schaller en el estudio Oidos Contentos (Buenos Aires) 
Mural por Mateo Rivano (pintado en el barrio La Macarena-Bogotá) Foto: Juan Felipe Rubio

Grabado en Bogotá el 10, 11 y 15 de Junio del 2009 en los estudios de la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Javeriana. 
Ingeniero de Grabación: Jefferson Rosas. Asistentes de Grabación: Nicolás Ramírez, Juan Diego Galvis y Tomás Arenas.

Agradecimientos: 
Al British Council Colombia, Incubator y Facultad de Artes U. Javeriana. A Martin Giraldo y Radio Cápsula por su apoyo incondicional. A Paula Silva, Mad Professor, Joe Ariwa y Manu Schaller. A Catalina y Luita. A todos los músicos que participaron en estas grabaciones. A Eblis, Pedro y Marco por darle tanto poder al FRENTE. A Mateo Rivano por tan tremendo mural. A Rob Ness, Leonor Convers, Oscar Hernandez, Subcopetón Cero, Lucas Silva, Juane, Sonido Martines, Propongo producciones y Names You Can Trust.

Ariwacumbé ShaunVox DUB

Bogota’s Meridian Brothers release their delightfully surreal and playful album ‘Deseperanza’ on 24th September on Soundway Records. Traditional instruments, electronics and distorted vocals are dragged through an array of influences to create a world that is as original as it is unclassifiable. 

Straddling the line between new and old, Meridian Brothers’ mischievous blend of Latin rhythms and psychedelic grooves is the creation of Eblis Álvarez, one of the key figures of the experimental music scene in Bogota. As with all of the Meridian Brother’s releases, every instrument on ‘Deseperanza’ was played and recorded by Eblis himself.

A true avant-garde guitar player and composer he also plays in Mario Galeano’s band Frente Cumbiero and was one of the 42 musicians involved in the recording of Ondatrópica, released this summer through Soundway Records.

Meridian Brothers started back in 1998 with Eblis experimenting with alternative ways of playing instruments and electronic media. Heavily influenced by Latin rock (Argentinian in particular) these early recordings were distributed by cassette on the underground music market in Bogota. It was in 1999, after joining Mario Galeano’s Ensamble Polifónico Vallenato that Eblis first became interested in the tropical music of Colombia and began working these new influences it in to the Meridian Brothers. 

Another key period is his development was his time spent in Denmark at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the DIEM (Danish Institute of Electronic Music). It was during this stage Eblis started using more sophisticated and intricate techniques in both electronics and signal processing. 

Eblis returned to Bogota in 2008, joining a burgeoning music scene with cumbia, salsa and currulao all being explored by a new generation of Colombian musicians. 2009’s "Meridian Brothers VI” goes deep into tropical sounds of the 60s and 70s in Colombia and integrates other influences such as highlife, Ethiopian music, surf and Peruvian and Colombian cumbia.

It was around this stage that Meridian Brothers made their first appearances as a live band with Damien Ponce (Percussion), Maria Valencia (clarinet, saxophone and synthesizers), Alejandro Forero (Keyboards), Cesar Quevedo (bass) and Eblis Alvarez (vocals, guitar and electronics). 

In 2011 "Meridian Brothers VII" was released. The sound of this album returns to Latin American rock influences as well as champeta experiments, jazz, cumbia and tropical. Distorted sounds, electronic changes in voice, obscure surf guitar and randomly changed sampled percussion all collide head on. Two tracks from this record were released on 7” by New York label Names You Can Trust in 2012. 

Which bring us to ‘Desesperanza’ (meaning hopelessness in English) Recorded in 2012 the album is dedicated exclusively to salsa and tropical music, twisting it through a dark and theatrical soundscape but never abandoning the traditional aesthetics. 

A real musical maverick, labelled a genius by his contemporaries in Colombia, Eblis Álvarez’s latest Meridian Brothers album finally gets a full, worldwide release. 


Meridian Brothers - Salsa Caliente (Versión Aumentada)

Soundway Records

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