Way more than a year after it was anticipated (judging by the time it was recorded, according to the band), the debut LP from Meanwhile in Mexico is finally here.This is a record that sets brand new standards in music using experimentation and innovation as vehicles, and will inspire future generations to boldly discover and invent new musical styles and genres. Well umm NO. This is a surf rock record duh. So why should anybody go and listen to a surf rock record in 2014? What new could it possibly have to offer to the listener?
Hmm if you’re really asking these questions, I’m afraid that this is the point where you stop reading. Still, I’ll humour you for a bit.Surf music to me is in many ways like, say, the movies. Although by now we have movies with incredible visual effects and huge budgets, most of the times personally I just want to kick back and enjoy a simple movie narrating a good story with good characters; the main reason why movies started to exist at all.So it’s the same with music. Through the 20th century and still moving on to the 21st, music has been evolving, mixed, revised, gone to every extreme. But not always is there a need for innovation and experimentation. Sometimes I need to know exactly what I am going to hear so I can enjoy it.
This is exactly what Meanwhile in Mexico deliver. A familiar sound I want to come back to from time to time. Paris is by now a seasoned guitar player and seems to know exactly how to handle his instrument in order to fulfill his purpose. And let not the firm rhythm section go unnoticed, as this is where all the exceptional surf guitar riffing treads on. And so does the occasional (while anything but randomly or carelessly placed) saxophone, trumpet and farfisa. Meanwhile in Mexico, like any other experienced surf rock band, prove that there’s simply no musical genre that can’t be converted to surf. From their version of the Godfather soundtrack to that of the classic rempetiko tune “Zaira” and from the Mexican rock of “Nose Ride” to the melancholic and soothing tunes of “Sad Mermaid (of the Mediterranean Sea)”, “Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Deaf” (an obvious reference to the small epic that the 1990 movie is) keeps the customer more than satisfied. The 42 minutes of the record sound like pure bliss to someone who knows what to expect and, with the summer marching upon us soon, this can easily be one of the best soundtracks to have as company. All you have to do, just have a taste at http://meanwhileinmexico.bandcamp.com/album/rosengrantz-and-guildenstern-are-deaf and then get your hands on the vinyl record for the full experience.
by Parasight
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