In the movie Drive, the lead character is a quiet man. He enjoys driving nice cars--fast. By nature of his hobbies and subsequent employment, he spends his time lurking the orange glow of LA's night-streets. With a cool demeanor, he chews on toothpicks, builds engines, and on occasion smashes a man's head in with his cowboy boots. Like magma under a volcano, our anti-hero hero's rage flows under him waiting to erupt. It's brought out by the surprise and possibility of the dark and its inhabitants. He's followed by an original soundtrack, heavily influenced by 80's synth pop. The songs and their sloppy harmonies compliment the night time scenes, but also work to humanize our hero during the day. They speak to his heart and his magma; to his soul and to the fire running through him.
The sounds of Chucha Santamaria Y Usted's self-titled debut EP, released on Young Cubs, are similar: heavily pop-synth influenced tracks reminiscent of the 80's but with a more contemporary edge. They're not blindly happy pop songs; they're dark, at times foreboding. The thundering Fiebre Tropical, a smash single since the summer, leads in the EP with a vibrant energy and the cool urgency of female vocals lamenting the arrival of tropical fever. By I Came for You, the second track, we know we've entered a dark place--a street-crawling space in which the paranoia of urban living manifests itself in high frequencies, echos, and tingling synths. Fanta Fabuloso sounds like a Passion Pit song turned on its head. Ominous imagery is everywhere: love songs set in the fog, desperate longing and obscured vision, prophetic lizards and moths. Take this bit form Grito de Lares Ridox: "Takes the whole night digging, buried in the mud/ eat their gun with your dancing on our way to the sun/ our new haircut feels like falling down the stairs/ backwards and forwards the jungle pushes us." It's violent--magma rushing underneath the surface.
Yet just like Drive, there is something heroic in the ferocity. Perhaps this is due to the production of Matthew Kirkland, the mastermind behind Chucha's music. Several of the songs could easily be dance tracks. The beats and rhythms are sultry. They're wild and sexy like the curves of the night, and this is only further emphasized by Sofia Cordova's voice. She's stronger when she sings in Spanish, which is not to exoticize; the diction and rhythm add another layer to the music and increase the tension. Always slightly off from perfect harmony, in that lazy way of 80's pop, her vocals are mesmerizing and a bit intoxicating. Between her highs and lows are a sense of freedom, a taste of fear, and a promise of adventure, just like night crawling. Maybe this is the sonic painting of Cordova's Puerto Rico, her home and according to her a place "where the poor are destined to live or die." Chucha's EP gives you chills but it also makes you sway. You'll want to listen to it track by track. You'll find your favorite singles and put them on your playlists. You'll keep the record spinning during parties. And on your drives through the orange glow of downtown or post-sunset subway rides into your nightly journey, this will be your soundtrack.
Rough around the edges but still smooth; dangerous and alluring. It's enough to make you wonder what they'll do with a full album.
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