For her fourth, and most immediate album so far, Juana Molina of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has set about capturing her famous blue melodies in a style close to her hypnotic live experience, but with all the immaculate production values we’ve come to expect from the creator of the critically acclaimed Tres Cosas and Segundo longplayers.
Juana Molina can, perhaps rather cheekily, be seen as kickstarting the new generation of performers who begin with their core group of instruments and a delay pedal, and take the relatively experimental approach of live sound-looping and manipulation to the pop-concert medium. Think Kama Aina, think Animal Collective, think KT Tunstall even…! She’s definitely somewhere between these first two disparate musical landscapes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her powerful solo renditions of songs from last year, using exactly Ms Tunstall’s sampling approach, have had an effect…
Juana Molina never makes of this a trick, but more an effective and affecting use of time-delay for a sense of disorientation and twisting beauty, to heighten her songs’ moods and structures. In fact it is an integral part of her composition process, this layering upon layering of polyrhythms, dissonant synth melodies, and effected voices. Her music is in love with texture and timbre, and despite its leftfield leanings it is a wondrous and accessible Song she sings. More and more people will fall under the spell with the joys of Son.
Much of Son is propelled by compulsive percussive vocal tracks, not dissimilar to the avant beatboxing of Bodenstandig and then Bjork before her. This turns to something close to scat-singing at times, and shows us a more explicitly soulful side to Juana than we’ve seen before. We also hear samples of sounds unfamiliar from previous albums, particularly on ‘malherido’, where twangs of banjo-like acoustic guitar bend and blend awkwardly into the sub-housey rhythms of the song, and a childlike sense of play seeps into the bizarre, momentarily aural landscape. Yes those voices do sound like pigs ‘oinking’. Juana seems to be sharing with modern contemporaries such as the Animal Collective, the musical adventurism of the Beach Boys’ Smile and its forays into farmyard fun, as well as a vocal lushness that is pleasing to any ear.
As Juana herself says of the music, "When I started to write the songs for this record Son, a new element that may have been hidden for a long time appeared; the randomness of the combination of sounds in nature. Each bird has a particular singing; nevertheless this singing is always different. It is not a pattern; it’s a drawing, a sound and a mode, only a few elements that each bird combines in a new way each time. In the same way, sometimes I chose to sing a melodic drawing I develop for the song. Verses are alike, but never the same (Rios Seco, No Seas Antipática) other times I chose to sing a repetitive melody.
What changes here and moves randomly is, for example, a keyboard. It is like overlapping two different loops, with no synchronicity at all. One very rhythmic and the other one more loose. When you play both, at the same time, the loose loop will provoke a changing harmony, because their beats will never be in the same place. This causes a moving harmony. During the tours, I also applied my new ideas to the old songs, that’s why, when I got back home, I recorded the first thing that came to mind using these new ideas. In October, when I sat down to put all I had for the record together I had the huge and pleasant surprise that I almost had the record done. Son is a step forward on the same path I started with Segundo and followed with Tres Cosas."
Son is the sound of a unique and significant modern songwriter at the peak of her game, enjoying herself, and dipping deep into her well of Song to create a musical cycle of sound so seductive and yet mysterious, that it stands up to repeated listening and exploration.
www.myspace.com/juanamolina
BUSINESS COALITION TO OPPOSE AFFORDABLE-HOUSING INITIATIVE
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) October 4, 2001 | Stephanie Ebbert, GLOBE STAFF, and Rebecca Duran, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Boston’s business leaders have long spoken out about the need for more affordable housing in the city, but they are now banding together against a ballot question that would boost property taxes to build that housing.
A team led by Fidelity Group and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce is forming a political action committee to sway voters against the Nov. 6 ballot question, and has hired the Rasky-Baerlein Group to plot a political strategy, leaders confirmed yesterday.
“Right now, with an economy headed into recession, if not in a recession already, with the repercussions of the terrible tragedy of Sept. 11, I think we all have to really ask ourselves, `Is this the right time to impose an additional property tax surcharge?’ ” said chamber spokesman Ed Pignone.
But David D’Alessandro, chairman and chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services, which supports the ballot question, lambasted fellow business leaders, calling it “reprehensible” for them to use the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington for political expedience. here act question of the day
“If anything, the events of Sept. 11 should be seen as a time to reach out more to the community, not less,” D’Allesandro said. “And the arguments that this is going to ruin our economy are incredibly specious.” Landlords have “made a fortune” on rents over the last decade, he said, “and a 2 percent increase in the property tax is not going to affect employment or the economy.” Organizers officially succeeded yesterday in getting the Community Preservation Act question on the Nov. 6 ballot, when the city elections department certified the necessary signatures.
If approved, the measure would trigger a 2 percent property tax hike in the city, generating $14 million. That money would be matched by $14 million in state money and would be dedicated to affordable housing, open space, and historic preservation efforts.
Yesterday at the Park Street T station, about 100 people celebrated the Committee for a Better Boston’s successful petition drive. “You have to be a millionaire to live in this city and we’re not all millionaires,” said Joe Nigro, head of the Boston Building Trades Council, which is backing the initiative.
“We need to insist that the politicians in this city and this state recognize the need for our own families to live and prosper in our community,” said Robert Haynes, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president.
But many politicians – including Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his challenger, Councilor at Large Peggy Davis-Mullen – have refused to take a stand on the thorny issue, which pits an aversion for tax increases against a commitment to affordable housing. Activists have sought Menino’s support for more than two months.
Both candidates hedged yesterday, insisting that they are not against the ballot question, but have concerns about the state of the economy.
“We aren’t saying yes or no,” said P.A. D’Arbeloff, the mayor’s campaign spokeswoman.
Davis-Mullen said that as mayor, she would do more than Menino to spur housing construction through city agencies, rather than relying on residents’ taxes.
Though many had expected businesses to oppose a tax hike – - which would disproportionately impact businesses, because of frequent homeowner exemptions – yesterday was the first time their leaders issued public and organized opposition. in our site act question of the day
“These are laudable goals but this is not the right time to be looking at a significant tax increase when lots of people are losing their jobs,” said Joe Baerlein of the Rasky-Baerlein Group.
Baerlein’s campaign pitch is already clear: “Many of the businesses have been large financial supporters of those goals,” Baerlein said. “The issue here is the timing given the economic period we’re all living in.” The campaign’s supporters recognized the difficulty of the times as well. As recently as Sept. 22, they discussed postponing the effort for a year if business leaders would extend a promise of belated support.
But the talks broke down two days later, said Marc Draisen, a campaign leader and executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
SIDEBAR: Taking sides The Globe yesterday asked all the candidates for Boston mayor and City Council whether they favor or oppose a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot that would raise property taxes by 2 percent to fund affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space conservation. Here are their responses:
MAYOR *Thomas M. Menino Undecided Peggy Davis-Mullen Undecided COUNCILOR AT LARGE (Four will win) *Michael Flaherty Favors *Stephen J. Murphy Undecided *Francis M. Roache Undecided Maura C. Hennigan Favors Felix D. Arroyo Favors Rob Consalvo Undecided Phyllis Y. Igoe N/A DISTRICT COUNCILOR District 1 (North End) *Paul J. Scapicchio N/A District 2 (South Boston) *James M. Kelly N/A Richard Evans Favors District 3 (Dorchester) *Maureen E. Feeney Undecided Mark Juaire Favors District 4 (Mattapan, North Dorchester) *Charles C. Yancey Favors Vicki Middleton Opposed District 5 (Hyde Park) *Daniel F. Conley N/A District 6 (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) Michael F. Rush Favors John M. Tobin Favors District 7 (Roxbury) *Chuck Turner Favors Roy Owens Undecided District 8 (Back Bay) *Michael Ross Undecided District 9 (Allston-Brighton) *Brian Honan Favors N/A: Could not be reached * Incumbent GLOBE STAFF GRAPHIC/ STEPHANIE EBBERT, REBECCA DURAN Stephanie Ebbert, GLOBE STAFF, and Rebecca Duran, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
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