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CD
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GB 090CD
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Sometimes, things fall together as if they're simply fated to exist. Orkesta Mendoza found that; as soon as the songs began to flow for Curandero, their second album for the Glitterbeat label, the stars seemed to align and everything was composed, recorded, and mastered in just a few short months. In 2018, the band began work on new material, but it didn't quite click. The music crosses and re-crosses that fluid border between Mexico and the United States, mixing rock and pop with ranchera and cumbia alongside snatches of mariachi horns. And hovering over everything is the spirit of '60s boogaloo. Band leader Sergio Mendoza was born in Nogales, Arizona (USA) but grew up across the border in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico). Rock arrived in his life after he moved back to the US, when he was still a young child. Inevitably, the different styles simply blended in his mind and fit together in his life. "Eres Oficial" looks back to the 1950s to evoke the ghost of Buddy Holly in its insistent guitar chords, and the production that puts an emphasis on the drumbeat. A stripped-back sound is apparent in cuts like "Head Above Water" and "Little Space." They bristle with hooks and immediacy and the kind of Latin flavors that would have been perfectly at home on old AM radio. Curandero quickly became an album filled with guests, featuring Joey Burns of Calexico, Chetes from the legendary Mexican rock band Zurdok, and Spanish singer Amparo Sánchez. Curandero has a close, intimate feel, but this wasn't a band playing together in a room; all the musicians came in separately to track their parts. The consistency of sound comes having the touring band drummer and bassist on most of the songs, and from Mendoza's production which makes everything seem organic and bright. The album's sole instrumental, the toe-tapping "Bora Bora," sounds like it was recorded in a dark, smoky club, with the feel of a soulful big band fueled by the retro, percussive power of Mambo. A vintage sensibility even takes Orkesta Mendoza back further -- all the way to the 1940s on the closing track. "Hoodoo Voodoo Queen" is the Andrews Sisters on a fantasy trip south of the border. The harmonies of Moira Smilie, Carrie Rodriguez, and Gaby Moreno sparkle over percussion, pedal steel and glorious, honking sax. Curandero is border music, without borders.
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LP
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GB 090LP
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LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. Sometimes, things fall together as if they're simply fated to exist. Orkesta Mendoza found that; as soon as the songs began to flow for Curandero, their second album for the Glitterbeat label, the stars seemed to align and everything was composed, recorded, and mastered in just a few short months. In 2018, the band began work on new material, but it didn't quite click. The music crosses and re-crosses that fluid border between Mexico and the United States, mixing rock and pop with ranchera and cumbia alongside snatches of mariachi horns. And hovering over everything is the spirit of '60s boogaloo. Band leader Sergio Mendoza was born in Nogales, Arizona (USA) but grew up across the border in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico). Rock arrived in his life after he moved back to the US, when he was still a young child. Inevitably, the different styles simply blended in his mind and fit together in his life. "Eres Oficial" looks back to the 1950s to evoke the ghost of Buddy Holly in its insistent guitar chords, and the production that puts an emphasis on the drumbeat. A stripped-back sound is apparent in cuts like "Head Above Water" and "Little Space." They bristle with hooks and immediacy and the kind of Latin flavors that would have been perfectly at home on old AM radio. Curandero quickly became an album filled with guests, featuring Joey Burns of Calexico, Chetes from the legendary Mexican rock band Zurdok, and Spanish singer Amparo Sánchez. Curandero has a close, intimate feel, but this wasn't a band playing together in a room; all the musicians came in separately to track their parts. The consistency of sound comes having the touring band drummer and bassist on most of the songs, and from Mendoza's production which makes everything seem organic and bright. The album's sole instrumental, the toe-tapping "Bora Bora," sounds like it was recorded in a dark, smoky club, with the feel of a soulful big band fueled by the retro, percussive power of Mambo. A vintage sensibility even takes Orkesta Mendoza back further -- all the way to the 1940s on the closing track. "Hoodoo Voodoo Queen" is the Andrews Sisters on a fantasy trip south of the border. The harmonies of Moira Smilie, Carrie Rodriguez, and Gaby Moreno sparkle over percussion, pedal steel and glorious, honking sax. Curandero is border music, without borders.
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CD
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GB 039CD
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2016 release. Born in Nogales, AZ, raised in Nogales, Mexico, multi-instrumentalist and band-leader Sergio Mendoza grew up listening to the Mexican regional styles jostling for headspace in a young, music-mad mind -- cumbia mainly, but mambo, rancheras, and mariachi too. The border is always a fierce arena of exchange, both commercial and cultural, and so there was American music too. At one point "rock and roll, the classics," as Mendoza himself deadpans, seemed to win out and he stopped playing those "Latin styles" for a good decade and a half. The return to those sounds was a strong one in 2012's Mambo Mexicano!, co-produced by Mendoza and Joey Burns of Calexico -- a band for which Mendoza has become an increasingly integral touring and recording member. While that record had a studied air, tentative in parts (as befits the renewal of an old love affair), ¡Vamos A Guarachar! is another beast entirely: by turns raucous ("Cumbia Volcadora," featuring Mexican electronic pioneer Camilo Lara), tender ("Misterio," surely Salvador Duran's finest moment with the band so far), and plain serious fun, as in "Contra La Marea" and "Mapache," it also bears a robust electronic edge, a keen pop sensibility, and all the hallmarks of Mendoza's love of '60s rock, with the closing track, "Shadows of the Mind," sure to be included if anyone decides to update the Nuggets collection for the 21st century. This is roundabout way of saying that it appears to have everything, but never too much of anything. Focused, fierce, and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians, it is a work that fully matches the band's explosive live performances. Sergio Mendoza: vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, percussion, programming, horns; Salvador Duran: lead vocals on "Cumbia Volcadora," "Misterio," and "Cumbia Amor De Lejos"; Sean Rogers: bass, lead vocals on "Shadows of the Mind"; Marco Rosano: sax, clarinet, trombone, keyboards, guitar; Raul Marques: backing vocals; Joe Novelli: lap steel.
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LP
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GB 039LP
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Repressed; LP version. 2016 release. Born in Nogales, AZ, raised in Nogales, Mexico, multi-instrumentalist and band-leader Sergio Mendoza grew up listening to the Mexican regional styles jostling for headspace in a young, music-mad mind -- cumbia mainly, but mambo, rancheras, and mariachi too. The border is always a fierce arena of exchange, both commercial and cultural, and so there was American music too. At one point "rock and roll, the classics," as Mendoza himself deadpans, seemed to win out and he stopped playing those "Latin styles" for a good decade and a half. The return to those sounds was a strong one in 2012's Mambo Mexicano!, co-produced by Mendoza and Joey Burns of Calexico -- a band for which Mendoza has become an increasingly integral touring and recording member. While that record had a studied air, tentative in parts (as befits the renewal of an old love affair), ¡Vamos A Guarachar! is another beast entirely: by turns raucous ("Cumbia Volcadora," featuring Mexican electronic pioneer Camilo Lara), tender ("Misterio," surely Salvador Duran's finest moment with the band so far), and plain serious fun, as in "Contra La Marea" and "Mapache," it also bears a robust electronic edge, a keen pop sensibility, and all the hallmarks of Mendoza's love of '60s rock, with the closing track, "Shadows of the Mind," sure to be included if anyone decides to update the Nuggets collection for the 21st century. This is roundabout way of saying that it appears to have everything, but never too much of anything. Focused, fierce, and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians, it is a work that fully matches the band's explosive live performances. Sergio Mendoza: vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, percussion, programming, horns; Salvador Duran: lead vocals on "Cumbia Volcadora," "Misterio," and "Cumbia Amor De Lejos"; Sean Rogers: bass, lead vocals on "Shadows of the Mind"; Marco Rosano: sax, clarinet, trombone, keyboards, guitar; Raul Marques: backing vocals; Joe Novelli: lap steel.
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