Jun 21 2006
Juana Molina at Neumos 6/19/06
I heard Juana Molina for the first time last night as she opened for Jose Gonzalez at Neumo’s. I find it difficult to describe her music, but if I were to pick adjectives, I’d use: eclectic, raw, organic, and soothing. Weird innit? Wiki describes her as:
The lyrics on her albums are sung in her native Spanish and often accompanied by acoustic guitar, among other instruments. Her music features elements of ambient and electronica, and she is often compared by critics to Björk, Beth Orton, and Lisa Germano.
Prior to her performance I got a lesson from a fellow next to me about how elegant her Argentine Spanish dialect is compared to other common dialects. He said that certain pronouns and other words were pronounced less harshly, giving the language a more graceful sound “similar to French, but without the pretentiousness.”
What I found amazing about her performance was that she was recording samples and loops during her performance through the use of her foot pedals. Sometimes she would do this before a song, and other times during a song. For example, she would sample herself doing a percussive strum on her guitar, then loop it back and play over it; she does not need a full backing bad -- she IS the band. She often intertwined her own droning vocal melodies as the backdrop for her Spanish lyrics.
Jaime and I had a great spot in the front row, unfortunately it was right in front of her keyboard so we could barely see her face. This spot would prove to be great for watching Jose Gonzalez though. Here are some pictures and videos of her performance:
This was a crosspost from my music blog.
