Chilango power
23 October 2005
Los de Abajo will perform on ‘Later’ - Friday 28 Oct; BBC2
The Gods must have been feeling skittish the day they created latin-punk-ska combo Los de Abajo.
And if they are still enjoying their handiwork, then the Mexico City-based band who packed out London’s Carling Academy in Islington last week are having even more fun.
Imagine the big brassy stabs of salsa, flirtacious Cuban-style piano mixed in with the relentless drumming of an oversexed oompa-band and you have - more or less - an idea of the zany sound that only Los de Abajo can carry off.
Touring in support of their new album, ‘LDA v The Lunatics’, they are a consumate live ensemble.
They reach out to the audience from the start, rewarding them with formation pogoing during the set which includes the reworked 1982 Fun Boy Three hit, ‘The Lunatics Are Taking Over the Asylum’ and the moving ‘Resistencia’, which must hold the distinction of being the first pop record to feature a senior member of the Zapatista High Command, in this case a sampled recording of Commandanta Esther.
And while guitarist Vladimir Garcia says that none of the band is a member of any political party, it is clear that la politica is present in much of their work.
The band’s core member’s met as high school students and soon discovered they shared a common musical and political values says Garcia whose mother is the well-known journalist and womens’ rights campaigner, Sara Lovera.
“Our parents were involved in the campaigns and movements of the 60s and 70s and we grew up listening to Ruben Blades (the Panamanian singer who is now a politician) and a lot music from the north of Mexico.
“And of course the Zapatista uprising of 1994 was a wake-up call for our generation. It touched us profoundly - the struggle for rights, not just for indigenous people in Mexico but oppressed people everywhere.
“When the Zapatistas marched from Chiapas to Mexico City, we had a very good meeting with Subcomandante Marcos.
“When we decided we wanted to use the sample of Esther we sent a message asking for permission…you never know if it gets through or not, but we think they would be fine about it so we went ahead.”
Living la vida Mexico – The Independent
Named Los de Abajo (The Underdogs) after one of first novels to chronicle the Mexican Revolution, by Mariano Azuela, the group worked with British producers Temple of Sound to record the new album in the Mexico City earlier this year.
For Neil Sparkes, one half of the Temple of Sound team, the project was an “incredible experience. It was my first visit to Mexico and now I’m hooked [ed - aren't we all!].
“Once we arrived, all our preconceptions went out of the window.
“We spent a lot of time - about two weeks - rehearsing and going over material before recording in a studio belong to Pepe Aguilar.”
Sparkes also found himself on stage playing before huge crowds at two benefit gigs in support of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who successfully fought off an attempt to impeach him earlier this year.
“It was a really exciting time to be in Mexico we will definitely be working there again in the future.”
EM
LDA v The Lunatics is out now. Listen to the whole album – free (click on “Audio and Video”).
Los de Abajo are set to perform on ‘Later’, to be broadcast on Friday 28th October, BBC2, at 23:35, where the band will be joined by orginal Fun Boy Neville Staple and Dennis ‘Bad Bone’ Rollins for ’The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum’.
Filed in: Art, Culture & Music
