Expressive Latin Rock
DePedro a.k.a. Jairo Zavala, guitarist with Calexico, strikes out on his own on this atmospheric and often quite beautiful album of many influences from Latin to 70s American rock. You can really hear that open and sweeping Americana influence on this record and that almost (David) Lynchian quirkiness that Calexico inject into their music throughout (in fact Convertino and Burns appear on pretty much every track in some way or another); many of the tunes have a sultry ‘night-time’ feel, slightly mysterious and danceably infectious.
Often quite beautiful, the album employs instruments guaranteed to make your arms prickle and has a dark, mysterious air about it. Echoes abound and acoustic guitar blends with double bass, cello, Latin style riffs and brass (usually trumpets or saxophone) and combined with De Pedro’s lovely, slightly husky vocals creates a dreamy, warm sound.
Album opener ‘Como El Viento’ is beautifully pitched to begin things; it eases you in with a gentle but catchy tune, stabs from the brass and layered acoustic guitar, quickly following this is the moody cover ‘Don’t Leave Me Now’ which is so atmospheric it almost has a soundtrack feel and is one of the few tracks to feature some English lyrics. ‘La Memoria’ is musically more up-beat and has a great chorus, ‘Two Parts In One’ features vocal input from Joey Burns and some very wonky sounding but moving slide guitar and a lovely background piano. Further in the album continues to impress with its range and quirkiness, never afraid to add an odd noise, interesting bit of percussion or as on ‘Que Puedo Hager Por Ti?’ a beat box perhaps? Right through to gentle acoustic closer ‘Miguelito’ the album thrills and engages with sweet and lovely tunes.
This record may have the input of the Calexico duo but it is very much DePedro’s own sound, calling on his Spanish and Latin-American backgrounds he has created an eclectic but at the same time cohesive record of moving, emotional songs on personal subjects. These songs are introspective and dreamy but also very infectious and listenable.