musik

ondasolas - monte (2021), Discos Hicaumeca

The recording of "monte" spans several years of recording and re-recording and re-recording on overdubbed dubs of old dubs.

But, I digress.

Many of the songs were birthed before I moved to Germany. The last album I released, "Circular", was finished in 2010.



For the recording, I used what I had at hand: Line 6 Spider III amplifier, generic strat, free microphone that comes with a karaoke machine. Low plastic stools, delicious noodles. The works. I started recording some bases afterwards. From those bases, most of the recordings got lost, either because I did not properly store them, or because on Christmas I got drunk and kicked the hard drive to the floor. It could have been anything. Back then, my partner discouraged me from doing music. She said, "that is a waste of time", she said. Only "centro del universo" and ""menor" survived from those days, but were never completed.

In 2012, I started a new round of tracks: 59 and 60. All were extremely long songs with drone, metal and noise burning ears in the back, but I never got around doing anything else with that. I named the project "Animales" and named tracks featuring names like "Osos", "Alces", "Patas", and other unrelated animal tracks like "Otras locas", "Otras rotas", and "Contrapunto". Everything was stored and left as was.

In 2017, I got back in track with fresh ideas. I recorded "Sash" and "LIONNESS", and recovered the work I did for 59 and 60. Sash got renamed to "Corrompe" and briefly as "Corrómpeme el culo" because of course.

In 2018, I recorded what would call "Primera bruja", with songs like "omtro", "Dmin" and "jazzgrooves".

I decided to give shape to a proper album in 2020, and started shaping each track one by one. "omtro" became "Luces", and I added vocals where I provide some sort of interview, driving back from El Maviri, a beach island close to my hometown, inspired by a video meme of a man named "Ahí te encargo", a man who claims being held hostage by "beautiful aliens from the fourth vertical" in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

I removed the original English lyrics for "LIONNESS" andI started a process of further harmonization and song-building, based on some poetry I had written over the years. This was the first full track that I finished, and renamed it to "COSTRAS", where the callback COSTRAS, FORMAN, CURVAS, QUE NO CICATRIZAN NUNCA was recorded at home, with my neighbors claiming I was disturbing their children with my screaming. The text also reminds me of some dear polish friends who would find "CURVAS" a fun adlib.

Next song to take shape was "Sash". This was a piece of work, because I messed up the Ableton project, causing the full track to misalign and since the drums are all programmed, I ended up with broken drums, and I got frustrated, and I threw all work to the garbage bin.
I wanted to have the song re-done, so I re-recorded vocals, now in Spanish, but I did not expand on the song itself. I just re-did the end drums, and the final mix is not perfect, but I did not want to spend too much time on that song. I had wasted enough. I renamed it "Ajenas".

"Dmin", written in D minor (I think, or at least that was what I intended), was reworked and some base drums were added, but I wanted to have more lively drums and a proper transition from the mellow beginning to the aggressive outro, with the adlib "DÉJAME, ASÍ" thought of during my annoying neighbors need to have quiet for their god damned satanic quiet children when they were out. I renamed it "Orden".

"Tragos" came from a shortening of "Zozobra entre tragos" because I thought short names are good names, and it is my way of thanking my friends who send me audio messages every now and then, with their specific speech inflections, accents and wording as background, as I heard everything back when we were young and we drank beers in bars, speaking over each other, with music playing in the background. Los extraño, cabros.

The album finishes with how I started: "59" and "60" indicating the beats per minute open the noise section of the album, with almost similar motifs running through them. Vocals from "59" got stuck from the original sessions in 2011. For "60", I made new vocals. They were renamed "CRUJE", because it is crunchy, and "MONTAÑA", because it is the thickest of the thickness of the album.

Things close with "LIONNESS", which was renamed to "COSTRAS", and it is the middle-old track, but one that ended being a very different thing from what it started.

In 2022, I did a quick remaster by increasing all levels to -3dB, even though I was getting a lot of clipping in the harsh parts. I think it sounds better (clipping included).

Many more albums are available on Bandcamp and all other streaming platforms.

Streaming. Streams remind me of Mark Kozelek.