Music Review - Soda Stereo

Formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early 1980, Gustavo Cerati, Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosio released two demos and started to play regularly in a bar called "Bar Zero". After a few shows, a CBS producer decided to give the band a chance. In 1984, their eponymic debut album, Soda Stereo was released, produced by Federico Moura, lead singer of the band Virus. In October, 1984 they played at the Rock & Pop festival with INXS, Nina Hagen and Charly García.

Their second album, Nada Personal was released in 1985 and affirmed the popularity of the band with some instantaneous classics such as "Nada Personal" and "Cuando Pase el Temblor". The video of the single "Cuando Pase el Temblor" was nominated in the category "Finalist Video" on the 12° World Festival of Video and TV.

Released in 1986, Signos represented the breakthrough from Argentina to the rest of Latin America: this was the first Argentine rock album to be released on compact disc, although this version was released in 1988. Signos contained songs such as "Persiana Americana", "Signos" and "Profugos" that gave the band the possibility to conquer wider audiences. Soda Stereo embarked in an extensive tour through Latin America to promote the album, they gave 22 concerts in 17 cities. A live album called Ruido Blanco was released, it contained the songs recorded in the Signos supporting tour without the intention to be published.

After over a year recording new material, Doble Vida was released in 1988. The album, produced by David Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar, was recorded and mixed in New York. The first three songs of the album were released as singles, "Picnic en el 4B", "En la Ciudad de la Furia" and "Lo que Sangra (La Cúpula)". Languis was released as an EP in the next year, and contained only one new song, "Mundo de Quimeras".

It was their sixth album, Canción Animal, released in 1990 that represented the band's peak,[2] the songs are among the band's strongest and most popular, the album contained the instant hit "De Música Ligera", the single "Un Millón de Años Luz", the exquisite "Té para Tres" and the anthem "(En) El Séptimo Día". Overall, the album is considered as the most consistent work by the band, along with Signos. On December 14, 1991 they played a concert in front of 250.000 people on the 9 de Julio Avenue.

In late 1992 Soda Stereo released Dynamo, their least popular album. This LP was Soda's most ignored, and most experimental work. The band presented the album in its entirety in a local talk-show, Fax. This was the first stereophonic TV transmission in Argentina. Shortly after the release, bassist Zeta Bosio suffered the loss of his son in a car accident which pushed the band to stop touring and promoting the album and go into a hiatus during which singer Gustavo Cerati started his solo career with his debut album Amor Amarillo.

Their last studio album, Sueño Stereo was released in 1995 after a few years of silence. Three singles became hits after being released, "Ella Usó mi Cabeza como un Revolver", "Paseando por Roma" and "Zoom". Sueño Stereo reached platinum disc after only 15 days of the release. MTV Unplugged's Comfort y Música Para Volar was released in 1996, and contained not only unplugged songs, it also contained outtakes.

On 1 May 1997, personal problems between the members and different artistic criteria led the band to announce its end and started the final tour on July 1997. Their last concert given on 20 September at the River Plate Stadium was recorded and released in two parts, El Último Concierto A and B.

Music Review - New Muzix

1. Never known as one to play safe Cosmo's DJ sets and productions reflect her expansive musical tastes and heritage that started her days as a teen radio DJ in the early 1980's. While living in New York City Cosmo was one of the leading underground dance radio DJs for nearly a decade and was a regular both of the floor and behind the decks at New York's hottest clubs. She formed a great friendship with mentor David Mancuso who asked her to guest at his party 'The Loft' on numerous occasions. Together they co-produced 'The Loft' series on Nuphonic and Cosmo is a founder of Lucky Cloud - The sound system that hosts David's current parties in London. Her move to London in '99 took Cosmo to another level as she began to play on a truly international level. She also stepped up her musical productions with releases on Playhouse, Disorient, and finally her own label, Bitches Brew. Like the Miles Davis Album Bitches Brew is a fusion of musical styles and is an outlet for many of Cosmo's productions including Bambu, Jinadau, Ch'i and her latest project Wild Rumpus with guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart). She is also busy on the remix front with new reinterpretations of Desmond Dekker, Spektrum and more. 'Cosmodelica' is Cosmo's new monthly at Plastic People - The coolest club in London. Via PP's superb sound system, Cosmo showcases a deep assorted brew of Cosmic disco, dub, soul, funk, psychedelic rock, balearic, indie, acid house, deep techno and whatever else strikes her 'Cosmodelic' fancy. Each month Cosmo will deliver a new Cosmodelica mix to give samurai listeners a taste.

2. An inimitable character, Osunlade is a talented and progressive producer and a one time teenage composer for Sesame Street. He can often be seen with an elegant piece of bone jewellery adorning his nose. He travels the globe as an international DJ performing to huge crowds of dedicated fans who have grown to love his unique soulful and deep house sets. Elements Beyond is his superb and sublime album, totally creative and ambient, in parts hypnotic, conjuring up a feeling of tranquillity while at the same time making you want dance. He is a talented musician playing the piano, guitar, drums, bass and of course he has developed his own singing voice. After producing many projects (he has credits on over 20 albums) he constantly explores new ideas in music and is not opposed to expressing himself with the way that he looks and taking inspiration from everywhere he goes.

It is no surprise that he decided to move away from the commercialism and corporate ideals and demands of Western life and decided to spend time in Africa embracing the culture of the Yoruba tribes. It was this experience that inspired Osunlade to establish his own record label Yoruba Records, respected by underground dance heads the world over. His spiritual inclinations may be responsible for a very important part of his artistic approach: Osunlade became a priest in the traditional African religion of Ifa, a belief system and culture based on the relation of nature to God, and all that inhabit this earth. "Ifa has changed my life, music and spirit. It allows me constant connection with the source and balance within myself..." Perhaps it can justify the use of his complex tribal percussion, soulful atmospheres and deep house elements that are all apparent in this album. When asked where he is from originally, his playful response is "Earth". A more accurate account is that Osunlade was born in St Louis, Missouri, USA, but never really felt he fitted in completely. Ultimately he has settled in Santorini, Greece. "I have settled there because of the peace and the energy of the island, this coupled with the fact that I've never been what you would call an American, even though my mother gave birth there".

3. Born in a small village in the heart of Switzerland, during the summer of 1988 Luciano aka Lucien-N-Luciano departs to Chile to follow his mothers' roots. The productions under his own name Luciano are aimed towards pleasure on the dancefloor, while his project name Lucien-N-Luciano is used to portray the slower downbeat productions. Not only the distance in miles, but the distance in music cultures between these two continents, in fact, soon intrigues and seduces him. He then started to play the spanish guitar, but also if surrounded by latin rhythms and rich melodies, he developed a strong curiosity for a diversity of music styles, and soon after, in one of his trips back to Europe, experienced the machine sounds of techno [as it made waves across Europe during the early years of rave culture and acid house]. Soon enough, he began to fuse both worlds and incorporate the sound into his own style. When a small electronic scene began to rise in Chile in 1994, 16 years old Luciano and other Chilean friends, among which Ricardo Villalobos, started organizing and promoting several events there, while producing their first tracks, all based on infused latin beats, percussion and grooves with minimalist electronic sounds. But the scene there couldn't avoid suffering some limits, and a year later Luciano began to travel widely playing live and DJing in clubs throughout the world. He has then released on world esteemed labels such as Perlon, Klang, Transmat, Mental Groove, Max Ernst, Bruchstuecke and Peacefrog - not to forget Cadenza, his own label. Founder of tyrant and resident at the club since day one Craig Richards' DJing soundtracks Fabric's Saturday nights every week. Blending dubby, breaky, house music with fragile, ever-funky techno, his sets have continually explored new and emerging genres. Craig is also Fabric's Musical Director. This is a special live recording of Luciano and Craig Richards playing together at one of the club earlier this year.

4. Mike Vamp left his home city of Frankfurt in 1980 to seek out a life in music in the cultural hub of Berlin. He soon picked up DJ gigs at emerging hip discotheques in West Berlin such as the Music Hall. In 1984 he started his production career creating multiple instrument compositions at home on a tape machine, his underground, industrial sound adopted by the hedonistic party scene in Berlin. A stint at a major from 86-89 was followed by a brief stint as a guitarist in the Rough Trade signed band The Space Cowboys before in 1994 he founded the Ocean Club with Gudrun Gut and Thomas Fehlmann. In 1997 while reworking the music of the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart into an electrical form he met new partner and the other half of his soon to be prodution outfit Martini Bros - DJ Cle. Their first release on Steve Bug's label Raw Elements was followed by more tracks and remixes for artists such as Louie Austin, The Scissor Sisters, 2-Raumwohnung, Tocotronic and many more. The duo still produce and play on the international circuit as well as of course their home city of Berlin. From October 2007 on Mike will start a new club line in his new resident club Watergate in Berlin. Together with his partner Cle from Martini Bros they will melt their experiences into a "dj-live-session" night.

Music Review - Julieta Venegas

One of the most gifted and accomplished -- and certainly one of the most respected -- artists in the Latin music sphere during the late '90s and into the next century, Julieta Venegas enjoyed enormous acclaim during her run, and though commercial success took a little while to catch up with her, it eventually did with her remarkable third album, Sí. Born and raised in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, Venegas was the daughter of two photographers and one of five siblings. She embarked on her musical journey at a young age, studying piano from the age of eight. In addition to piano, she also studied musical theory, singing, cello, and violoncello at La Escuela de Música del Noroeste, while she also crossed the border to study at South Western College in San Diego -- all of this before she even graduated from high school.

During her school years Venegas began playing with various bands, including Grupo Chantaje and Tijuana No! (composing one of the latter's more significant hits, "Pobre de Ti"). At the young age of 22 she packed her bags and moved to Mexico City, where she hoped to involve herself with the city's vibrant music scene. Given her talent (and beauty), it didn't take her long to make acquaintances, among them Fratta and Café Tacuba. She began writing music for plays around this time, including Calígula Probablemente by Francisco Franco, and she also took up the accordion. She then started a band called la Milagrosa, enlisting Fratta and Rafael González, but when she was offered a contract with BMG, she dropped the band idea and began work on her solo debut, Aquí, which she recorded in Los Angeles with esteemed producer Gustavo Santaolalla (Café Tacuba, Juanes, the Amores Perros soundtrack).

In addition to writing the songs on Aquí and singing them, Venegas also played the accordion, piano, and guitar; a number of guests also played on the album, among them brothers Joselo and Enrique Rangel (Café Tacuba), Rafael González (Botellita de Jerez), and Patricio Iglesias (Santa Sabina). BMG released the album not only throughout Latin America but also in the United States and Spain, and it won much acclaim for its excellence. She also toured a lot, embarking on the De Viva Voz tour with Ely Guerra and Aurora y la Academia (which stretched across North America) and the Calaveras y Diablitos tour with los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Aterciopelados (which hit the major cities of Spain). During this same late-'90s era, she contributed her in-demand talents to a number of albums by other artists (Enrique Bunbury, Mastretta) and to a number of soundtracks too (En el País de No Pasa Nada, Amores Perros), and she performed at a number of major festivals.

During roughly this same time Venegas also wrote and recorded her second album, Bueninvento, released in 2000. A bit of a departure from her debut, Bueninvento was more of a straightforward rock en español album, without quite so many of the artsy flourishes of Aquí, and features a backing band of veteran sessionmen: Joe Gore (guitar), Fernando Saunders (bass), Joey Waronker (drums), and Rick Boston (sax, flutes). More tours and soundtrack contributions followed: the Revolución tour with Jaguares, Jumbo, la Gusana Ciega, and Lisa Flores; the Fémina Rock tour with Aterciopelados, Maria Gabriela Epumer, and others; and the films Demasiado Amor, Sueno del Caimán, Asesino en Serio, María Llena Eres de Gracia, and Subterra. She also got her first Latin Grammy nominations: Best Rock Song for "Hoy No Queiro" and Best Rock Album for Bueninvento.

Following all of this activity, Venegas settled down in Madrid and Buenos Aires to record her third album, Sí, this time working with producers Coti Sorokin and Cachorro López rather than Santaolalla. An even bigger departure than Bueninvento was from Aquí, Sí was not only a shift in songwriting and musicianship but also a shift in emotion. In a word, it's happy -- a happy album charged with love and other such emotions, not the sort of serious, somber tones that shaded her past work. In terms of songwriting, Venegas collaborated with Sorokin for half the album, something she'd never done before -- co-write her own songs, that is. And too, she altered her arrangements, going for a poppier approach, and played around with programming different sorts of groovy rhythms like hip-hop and reggae from which she would build the songs. Sí ended up being her commercial breakthrough as it spun off one big hit after another. "Andar Conmigo," "Lento," and "Algo Está Cambiando" all charted highly, each successive single doing better than its predecessor.