March 03, 2006

Effing coco effay emmay

coconutfmcover.jpg

Don't think I ever posted this link before, but the liner notes I wrote for the Seńor Coconut-curated Coconut FM CD are finally online. I was a little disappointed that this album didn't make more of a splash last year, and not just because I'm quite fond of the notes, to be quite honest. The comp is pure fire, and you might have thought that the reggaetón and funk carioca portions (2/3 of the album's coverage, the other genre being cumbia, with a killer cumbia lunática selection from Dick El Demasiado worth the price of entry alone) would have resonated with a hipster listenership and critical consensus swayed south by Diplo's efforts at ambassadorship.

But for some reason, Coconut FM didn't garner much buzz. (Props to Chuck Eddy for singling it out in one of his download columns — even though, oddly, the stream links at the time were to Coconut original compositions.)

So for the unconvinced or uninformed, take my word for it: it's worth checking out; one of the record's strengths is the way it bridges "underground" and "mainstream," ignoring hipster cachet in favor of pure sonics. So you get reggaetón's Tego Calderón (w/ a song way better than "Gasolina," IMHO) side by side with Argentina's cumbia villera gangstas Los Pibes Chorros, alongside "fake" reggaetón from Chile, a country not particularly known as reggaeton central. That's the whole point: fake and real get shown the door altogether, under the belief that the sound's all that matters. If you can move your cintura to it, what else matters? (Listen to me, I'm turning all popist.)

Anyway, enjoy the liner notes. Me in not-writing-about-techno-for-once shocka!

PS. For anyone intrigued by all this, a mysterious entity known as the Surtec Collective will be making waves with more Southern Cone-sourced reggaetón (reggaecón?) very soon...

Posted by philip at March 3, 2006 10:22 AM
Comments

Yo, I gave that record some props on XLR8R.

Hmm...maybe the cover wasn't risque enough.

Posted by: CM at March 3, 2006 12:59 PM

ah cool, i never saw that...
you're prolly right. cover was a little understated.

Posted by: philip at March 3, 2006 01:01 PM

One the best compilations of last year! David Day has probably played every track on the CD while DJing in Boston the past couple months.

Posted by: Michael F Gill at March 9, 2006 12:46 AM

the cd didnt create a buzz because the selection was lame. the funk tracks were unispiring (certainly daniel haaksma did the top selection for funk carioca on "favela booty beats"), and the reggaeton tracks nothing what you could exciting. and where was the big fm concept the cover was promising? when i first saw the cd i thought, hmmm maybe he picked up malcolm mclaren´s idea for "duck rock" - but with only two short fake radio jingles, where was the point in all this? so it doesnt come to me with no surprise that this didnt sell.....

Posted by: at April 1, 2006 03:36 PM

the cd didnt create a buzz because the selection was lame. the funk tracks were unispiring (certainly daniel haaksma did the top selection for funk carioca on "favela booty beats"), and the reggaeton tracks nothing what you could exciting. and where was the big fm concept the cover was promising? when i first saw the cd i thought, hmmm maybe he picked up malcolm mclaren´s idea for "duck rock" - but with only two short fake radio jingles, where was the point in all this? so it doesnt come to me with no surprise that this didnt sell.....

Posted by: at April 1, 2006 03:37 PM
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