Infiné, easy music for the hard to please

This year, our “Workshops” at la Carrière will welcome two Mexican artists. Both of them do electronic music but both have them seem to have a profound liking for melodramatic Atmospheres.

We previously highlighted Murcof rework for “Como Quisiera Decirte” (taken from “La Sangre Iluminada”). This time we asked Cubenx to dig into his record collection to extract us 10 classics about love and Mexican roots. Enjoy!

Javier Solís - Tómate una Copa

A beautiful song about a man that lost his woman, he then invites a drink to a stranger girl in a bar, explaining that the tears in his eyes are from the cigarrette smoke. This is pure romantic mariachi music.

Los Angeles Negros - Como quisiera decirte

A band from Chile that relocated to Mexico in the seventies. Los Angeles Negros made the saddest songs back then. Always longing for love and drowning in despair, they have a maudlin singing voice and a gloomy sound in they recordings. Listening to them while being sad is a strange pleasure, a bit masochistic in fact.

Javier Solís - Y

On this one, Javier Solís surrenders to the love for a woman that betrayed him and offers his love back, even when she does not love him back.

Pedro Infante - Cien Años

I must confess that I dont like the singer that much on this one, but the song is beautiful, I remember being quite drunk with my friend Fanfarrosa singing this song to the nice danish girls queing at Bar 25 in Berlin. Of course that didn't work... In this kind of music, the arrangements are always very classy and nice.

Jose Alfredo Jiménez - No Me Amenaces

He was one of the great singer-songwriters of mexican Mariachi music, quite dramatic interpreter and author of a good number of very passionate pieces. His lyrics were inspired from and sung to women and the omnipresent bottle of tequila, a drink to beat any grief (or boost it).

Chavela Vargas - La Llorona

She was born in Costa Rica, then naturalized mexican. She used to dress very manly and carry a gun, embracing the mariachi culture that was mainly dominated by men. She worked mostly with Jose Alfredo Jiménez as composer. On this one, she sings live a version of the classic oaxacan song "La Llorona" which dates back to the Mexican Revolution times.

Victor Iturbe - Soy Lo Prohibido

A great singer born in Puerto Vallarta. This sound is called Bolero, it comes from Cuba but most latin american countries have their own Bolero sound, in Mexico it is huge and we are all familiar with it, I am sure most mexicans were at some point in love and touched by a Bolero song.

Agustin Lara - Noche de Ronda

This is my favourite composer from Mexico, his songs are very elegant, harmonically rich and romantic. He also wrote Maria bonita which is one of the most famous mexican songs in the world. But that was too obvios for this list.

Jose Jose - El Triste<

The sound is bad on this one, but i had to use this link, the performance is so good and the intensity cannot he heard on the others. Jose Jose is one of the most succesful interpreters in Latin America, he was called "The Prince of Song", due to his clean tone and hability to sustain high and low notes. He was also a trained musician and a lover of booze and party.

Los Xochimilcas - Que se mueran los feos

Well, after all the drama, we have to dance and have fun, so I had to round this up with a happier mood, even when there's sadness, a good cantina can save us from the dark side. Here's a great song by Los Xochimilcas, this is a band that my mother used to book to play at her parties when she was young. The title of the song translates as "Let the ugly ones die".