Chucha Santamaria y Usted don’t just have one of the longest names in the indie community, they back up those letters with musical heft. “Fiebre Tropical” clocks in at only 2:40, yet it more than justifies the length of their moniker. “Fiebre Tropical” is the first single from Chucha Santamaria y Usted’s self-titled debut mini LP, which the Austin boutique label Young Cubs released in June.

Though their sound encompasses that of an entire ensemble, Chucha Santamaria y Usted is just two people: Sofía Córdova and Matthew Kirkland. The duo hails from Oakland by way of Puerto Rico and New York City.

While it may not be obvious to the listener, “Fiebre Tropical” is about the arrival of Europeans to Puerto Rico in 1492, you know, that event that’s usually termed “discovery” by most insensitive textbooks and grammar school history teachers. Chucha Santamaria y Usted may be giving Christopher Columbus the metaphoric musical finger on this track – even their name seems to hints that perhaps they would not be out waving flags at their local Columbus day parade.

The song also shares its name with a live album by Cuban-American bandleader Chico O’Farrill. Not to make too much out of what is probably happenstance, but like Chucha Santamaria Y Usted, O’Farrill was a hybrid (Irish-German-Cuban) whose ability to blend Latin rhythms with bebop led him to work with some of the 20th centuries greatest musicians: Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Stan Getz.

Like O’Farrill’s music did a generation before, “Fiebre Tropical” intrigues because although its origins are diffuse, it succeeds in borrowing whatever it needs from wherever it likes.

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July & August 2011 MP3 Rewind

Icona Pop “Manners”

El Guincho “Bombay”

For those of you who have been itching for the current trend of 60′s surf-tinged bedroom pop to find its way from its humble, hazy Jan and Dean influences into funkier territory plied by the likes of The B-52′s, Parisian band La Femme offers up today’s featured track, “Sur La Planche.”

Pushed forcefully along by a propulsive bass line, “Sur La Planche” sounds like The B-52′s as fronted by April March. Reverb coils ring throughout the song to punctuate the giddy bass line and sustained organ tones, a theremin, and the singer’s sexy, effervescent vocals (sung in French) give the track an exotic air. The guitar line sounds as if it was pulled from from a Link Wray album, and the drum beats are plucked straight from a disco. The song may ultimately send you scrambling back to the first two records by the B-52′s, but the best elements of those seminal party albums are echoed here lovingly and with the perfect amount of sneer and swagger.

“Sur La Planche” is the lead-off track from the band’s debut EP, Le Podium #1 : La Femme, released this past December on Third Side Records.

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Anita Tijoux “1977″

The Concretes “Good Evening”

Architecture in Helsinki “Contact High”

Steel Drums carry the melody of “Bombay” while Spanish musician El Guincho (a.k.a. Pablo Díaz-Reixa) delivers vocals in his native tongue. Stomping percussion anchors the track, so that the ornate melodic embellishment never loses its tether. Female background singers, whom I imagine must be exotic but angelic creatures, drape “Bombay” in a beautiful “Oo oo oo” chorus. Despite its many bells and whistles, “Bombay” never sounds overwrought. It takes great skill to handle so many elements without allowing them to become too busy.

Another aspect of El Guincho’s appeal is that his work is so difficult to categorize. “Bombay” is fluid. Only the syncopation seems reminiscent of the subcontinent that gives the song its name. The steel drums offer a Caribbean flavor, while the percussion feels more African. The English language is so full of terms that imply mixing is bad: miscegenation, mishmash, mutt, jumble. In botany, when a flower mutates, it’s called a “sport.” We need more words for the magic that comes from the type of mixing that gives us new orchids and new genres of music.

Though Díaz-Reixa’s work, both solo and with his band Coconots, is often compared to Animal Collective, “Bombay” displays a much tighter sense of melody and rhythm than anything on Sung Tongs. Young Turks will release Pop Negro, El Guincho’s follow-up to his debut Alegranza!, this Tuesday, September 14th, 2010.

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Teletextile “What If I”

Reporter “Click Shaw”

Chucha Santamaria y Usted “Fiebre Tropical”

Since the genre’s seminal days, hip-hop has always been a boy’s club. Popular female emcees have been few and far between–from MC Lyte to Kid Sister, you’d probably be hard-pressed to name more than a dozen or so. That’s one reason why, as a female rapper with prodigious talents, Anita Tijoux is such a breath of fresh air. Another is the playfully cross-cultural atmosphere she imbues in her music, likely the result of her own cross-pollination (she was born in Lille, France to a French mother and an exiled Chilean father before returning to South America as an adolescent). In 1997, Tijoux was a co-founding member of Makiza, a hip-hop troupe modeled on the New York underground sound of acts like Leaders of the New School and Native Tongues which quickly rose to prominence in the Latin American hip-hop scene.

Since then, Makiza has released three LPs and in September of 2007, Tijoux made her solo debut with Kaos, an import-only title here in North America. Her Stateside debut is the upcoming 1977, to be released in April on Nacional Records. The record’s title track is a cool mix of modern production techniques and samples of traditional Latin instrumentation, with blaring trumpets and percussive acoustic guitars. Of course, the star of “1977″ is Tijoux herself. Her lyrics roll off her tongue in a maddening swirl, enthusiastically bounding up the spiral staircase created by stuttering samples and their syncopated groove. Lyrically, the song recounts Tijoux’s birth in the year of the snake (“el año de la serpiente”) and the awkwardness of adolescence (a “bizarre phase”–”una etapa bizarra”–in her words).

Regardless of whether you can follow her words along or not, “1977″ is an infectious, distinctive composition which still feels fresh and satisfying after dozens of listens.

Here’s where you can find Anita Tijoux at this year’s SXSW festival:

- Thursday, March 18th at midnight @ Flamingo Cantina
- Saturday, March 20th at 1:00 am @ Maggie Mae’s

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Miniature Tigers “Gold Skull”

March 2010 MP3 Rewind