I started doing some preliminary research on
Dub Gabriel's Anarchy & Alchemy
but it looks like that album's release date was moved from today to
November... which is fine because I have a few releases that I need to
write about today instead.
I first came across
Juana Molina when I saw her striking cover art to
Segundo
(2005), which is nothing more than a sea of her long, straight hair
with just a glimpse of her beautiful nose and mouth. So, as it turns
out, her latest album,
Un Dia (A Day), comes out today, and also feature a weird distorted album cover artwork, emphasis on her symmetric face and hair.
The interesting thing that I found out about her, was that her family
lived in exile in Paris for six years, before returning back to their
home country of Argentina. She's possibly better known for being a
comedic actress on the television show
Juana y sus Hermanas (Juana and Her Brothers).
Un Dia is entirely in Spanish, much like her previous releases (with the exception of
Insensible,
which is entirely in French), fans of melodic, folk, and world music
will not mind this. Although, I will have to admit, it makes it hard
for me to write about her music since I don't understand the lyrics.
My best description of her music is that it is sometime
ambient music (but done with acoustic guitars) and some of the lyrics
are there to just sound good... Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but it is
the impression I got the first time I listened to it.
There are enough odd percussion, traditional instruments, and
sweet harmonic vocals on this album that reminds me of later, more
experimental Bjork.
My favorite song on this album is "El Vestido" (The Dress), followed by
"Quién?" (Who?), followed by "Un Dia". I think "El Vestido" stood out
because of the strange electronic ambient and acoustic rhythm.
If you like what you heard and want to check out more, she is offering the title song at
juanamolina.com/tourdownload.
The album is currently for sale at her record label,
Domino Records, as well as online stores.
Juana Molina is currently in the middle of touring through Europe and eventually landing over in Japan.
)
