About a year and a half ago, my review of Gustavo Cerati's Bocanada got me featured on RYM's homepage for the first time, a review which is probably the apex of my early review writing, wherein I was most pure in terms of my holistic, emotions-first, not-too-sociological way of reviewing records, when I was surprisingly succinct in terms of being able to summarize a record in about a paragraph or two. Back then, it was simply an immensely surprising record, a revelation if you will, beyond the great tracks themselves, the thought that the frontman of a hard-rock group like Soda Stereo, whilst notably sophisticated and experimental in its own right, would craft such an immensely sophisticated, deeply intimate record was not only incredible, but immensely intoxicating.
I grew up around the likes of Soda Stereo thanks to the wide music taste of my dad, I had been quite familiar with the likes of "De Musica Ligera", or "Persiana Americana", or "En La Ciudad de la Furia" or any of their international hits, of which their discography is primarily comprised of. My image of the group, and consequently of its frontman was very much set in this pop-rock, new-wave, 80's, somewhat cheesy kind of music, as aforementioned, Soda Stereo were noted for being fairly sophisticated, especially compared to their peers. Of course though, coming into Bocanada, I didn't really know this yet, I hadn't yet learned much about the story of Soda Stereo and hadn't really yet known about records such as Sueño Stereo or Dynamo which would have at least mentally prepared me and given me a background of the direction Gustavo Cerati was heading towards coming into the new millennium.
Much has been written about Soda Stereo and Cerati, particularly in Spanish-speaking spaces, Soda Stereo had always been influenced by the goings of British music, if anything their records do track a fairly nice timeline of the direction pop-ish British Music was going through the 80's and 90's, from the world of Ska, New-Wave, into Hard-Rock and ultimately into Shoegaze and Electronica, and Bocanada continues this tradition, whilst the late 90's were dominated by the world of Britpop, it would be hard to disregard the immense influence that rave culture had on the British music world. The progenitors of Britpop, the Madchester scene, were immensely influenced by this, and coming into the turn of the millennium, the world of trip-hop, downtempo, electronica had seen their popularity ebb and flow, but continue to impart their influence into the pop world. 1999 had seen such releases as Moby's Play, Madonna's Ray of Light, Blur's 13, records that were ostentatiously influenced by the new wave of sampler-based, non-dance electronic music arriving into the radar of pop music.
This saw another new wave of sort-of genre-bending music arrive into the pop world, unlike groups such as New Order who eventually ended up making actual dance music, this music was somewhat more sophisticated, complex in its influences and harder to neatly encapsule in a single box. Coming back into Cerati, Bocanada epitomizes this perfectly. 'Puente' is essentially alt-rock, 'Bocanada' trip-hop, 'Y si el humo está en foco…' is 90's ambient techno, 'Verbo carne' is downtempo, closer 'Balsa' is ambient dub, but these tracks too don't perfectly fit into each box, they are all influenced by each-other's influences, and can too be pointed towards other genres, its granular elements revealing further influences. These influences, too, particularly in the resulting samples that are scattered throughout the record, present in this new context of LATAM pop, are incredible in the sense they lose their original context and live an entirely new life in this record. For a mainstream audience largely unfamiliar with the obscure psych-rock and electronic records Cerati was influenced by and was sampling, these samples were an experiential simulacrum, a copy without an original. The source was entirely unknown to the average listener, therefore, the sample became something entirely new, unique to Cerati's tracks. Whilst 1999 was already well into our modern, interconnected society, it is easy to disregard that the world of LATAM music was still isolated and lived in its own dimension, while the alternative scene in Argentina was immensely creative and tapped into the global music world, and one could have already seen the influences of Cerati via MTV, it is far more likely that a number of the listeners of Soda Stereo hadn't even been exposed to this new world of music, the pop scene was very much isolated, and whilst Cerati had already made things like minimal techno with Ocio's Medida Universal, Bocanada was to be his first major release since Soda Stereo disbanded, it was to be released onto major label BMG and had significant marketing put behind it. This musical isolation meant that listeners were likely coming into Bocanada with a pure view, and saw Cerati's new musical taste entirely removed from its influences.
In holistic terms, Bocanada is an intimate, dark, deeply atmospheric record, all of the tracks collaborate to create a nocturnal atmosphere to the record, it guides the listener towards appreciating the intimate, granular details present in the record, particularly in its slower, instrumental interludes, notably in the middle part of the record. It is immensely effective in enveloping one into the record, and transmits all the emotions Cerati wished to express in the record, directly towards one. The innocent average LATAM pop listener in the late 90's, incognizant of the influences of the record, if anything, listened to the record and absorbed it in its purest emotional form, and perhaps, with how much effort the record spends attempting to transmit its emotions as effectively as possible, this innocent listening experience, may have been the ideal one.
Cerati spent much of his career making tracks about love, and in part also the state of society, particularly Argentinian society in the midst of societal change and turmoil, in Bocanada, these themes remain, they are not only far more ingrained within the sonic atmosphere of the record, but also take on a new form, being far more abstract and metaphysical. The lyrics work throughout images and the associations, particularly emotional ones, that they make to the listener, they are led by raw emotions which are consequently immediately transmitted to the listener. Emotions such as (erotic) desire, and solitude and disconnection, permeate throughout most of the tracks commonly as fleeting images, describing the moment as it happens. There is a far deeper interest in things like the body, not so much as simple conduits for pleasure, but as a site where meaning is generated, most obviously expressed in 'Verbo Carne', this sitting alongside a more philosophical view of erotic desire, such as in 'Tabú', wherein the desire is generated by the fact it is socially taboo, prohibition creating its intensity and its value. Present, too, are themes of dreaming and altered consciousness, the title, Bocanada, not only describes the fact that the record is a breath of fresh air compared to the backdrop of Soda Stereo, but the fleeting inhalation of something which alters your perception. 'Engaña', is particularly philosophical in the manner in which it questions our own perception, and our susceptibility to being deceived by ourselves, particularly by things such as emotions. Underneath this sensuality and desire, of course, lies solitude and the failure of communication, tracks such as 'Bocanada', and 'Perdonar es divino' describe this most clearly, the former talking about the disconnection in a relationship eventually causing its fracture, the latter continues to describe this lack of communication, but instead in an attempt to remediate these problems instead of continuing to foster this distance and attempting to forgive each other's mistakes. In contrast to Soda Stereo though, the record's lyrics are far more intimate, these are not to be screamed to an arena, instead they are to be spoken to a listener's ears.
As aforementioned, Bocanada is nocturnal and intimate, and consequently, profoundly detailed in its sounds. The depth of sounds and genres tackled provides an eclectic listening experience, but the creativity with which these are performed is also notable; there is a certain Latin music sensibility to the way these "foreign" music genres are handled. Whilst the obvious elements, such as traditional instruments and little vocal quips, are scattered throughout various tracks in the record, there is a fundamental philosophical difference to the original influences, rhythms present have a distinct Latin flair akin to the syncopated rhythms of traditional music and its pop derivatives, with tracks that are uniquely melodic in their composition. In terms of the composition, whilst the world of New Wave was led by the idea of applying synths to rock music, here it seems to be the opposite; whilst structures are very much pop-based, the sonic aspects focus on applying vocals to commonly instrumental genres, as evidenced by tracks like 'Beautiful' and 'Bocanada'. A particularly impressive feat is the manner in which this depth of sound remains cohesive in its image. Despite the wide range of influences, these tracks never venture too far into their own dimension; they are commonly led by atmospheric background elements; short samples, synth pads ranging from the airy to the aquatic, quiet guitars guiding the track, all which collaborate and provide immense texture to each track. Too, each track remains intimate without feeling cramped. There is a notable amount of space present in the mix, never does a single element dominate, its loudest moments being periods when these elements coalesce into a climax. Take 'Verbo carne': the immense orchestral elements, akin to Portishead's Roseland NYC concert, provide an epic atmosphere backed by a constant trip-hop beat. It eloquently transmits the emotions the metaphysical, abstract lyrics describe without requiring one analyse them too closely, and despite the literally massive orchestra behind Cerati, the track does not fail to remain intimate, it simply augments the impact of Cerati's words.
The emotions which this record provides, are the product of a beautiful symbiosis of both the lyrical and sonic contents contemporaneously, while this may seem obvious, the emotions that a track provides are commonly only provided by one of the two, which leads the way whilst the other plays a secondary role in simply accompanying this. Here, instead, both elements work together. Opener 'Tabú', its choruses slowly build towards these invigorating climaxes wherein the background elements of the track grow alongside the lyrics and provide this exhilarating feeling. Exhilarating can also describe 'Puente', wherein its elements drowning in delay effects build the distorted guitar chorus which appears as a fleeting moment contrasting the otherwise particularly intimate and nocturnal atmosphere of the track. More cheerful tracks, such as 'Paseo inmoral', have Cerati's vocal performance perfectly cooperate with the more progressive instrumentation, led by a constant drum pattern. But in the majority of tracks, wherein one can describe them primarily as intimate, previous statements apply, atmosphere is backed by lowkey, unforced vocals by Cerati, some of the most articulate and detailed performances of his career.
For the longest of times, I resisted the idea of making things like top-5 lists of the best albums of all time, or to even describing a single album as my favorite, I felt that my music taste was too wide, my listening too scattered to ever be able to define one as the ultimate record. I could describe my favorites for a certain period, for a certain genre, fairly easily, but without a category to filter out, I didn't think I could do it. It has been about four years since I truly got into music, since the day I fatefully read the term "IDM" in a comments section for Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and went down the rabbit hole, something which led me to discover and listen to ever more experimental and obscure music, to form a wide taste and knowledge of music and its history, and eventually to have a library of over 60000 tracks in my computer, favourites have continually come and gone, I have bounced between interests trying to expand my knowledge. It has been a little less long since a friend's comment made me interested in this record, yet somehow the emotions that the record provides have never dimmed, the record has never appeared less mystical, my interest in it never waned, it continues to feel as fresh and surprising as the first time I listened to it. With that, I think I can say it is my favourite.
