Carlangas has recently published an album of dance music – the last one is about dancing together but also – called ‘Bailódromo Vol.1’. In it we have been especially captivated by ‘Always Returns’ because the former Novedades Carminha increasingly pushes the color palette further in terms of arrangements. The theme is our Song of the Day and Carlangas has answered some questions about its composition.
Carlangas’ tour with his band Los Cubatas continues this Thursday, November 21 at the Ochoymedio in Madrid, on Friday the 22nd at the Dabadaba in Donosti, on November 23 at Tribeca Live in Oviedo, on January 2 at Santas Pascuas in Pamplona, then Murcia, Santiago… More details, at carlangas.es.
We started by asking how this song came about: «I made it with Fer de Mundo Prestigio returning from the MIN awards in Zaragoza. We had some nominations for my first album and the only thing we got was a party. Since we were happy despite the defeat, we wanted to celebrate life and make a song with two basic chords, that’s why the more you limit yourself, the more you free yourself, as Stravinsky said. It’s true. We both really like Brazilian music from the 70s and I had never done a song with Spanish guitar, although it really is the guitar that I use every day and I wanted it. To that mix of drums and funk bass, the guitar is a little lo-fi with the agogo and the percussions, we thought we could add a flute like from the rumba of the 70s and Paloma Cosano appeared to leave us with our mouths open with her solo of flute It’s my favorite song on the album. We also wanted it to somehow sound contemporary, with bass and Luca Petricca (co-producer and mixer) helped us a lot with the finish.
In that lyric about that person who leaves but “always comes back”, the image of someone who “closes his eyes when he hears a hymn” is curious. Who inspired the text of ‘Always Return’?: «Last year I went to Barcelona to record a song for TVE’s New Year’s Eve Gala and I met one of my best friends named Mariña. Whenever we get together we take the opportunity to fix the world, and in this case we talked about how friends of ours from adolescence have become gentlemen and ladies of customs at 35 years old. Those who were the coolest before, now walk through shopping centers on Saturdays, get excited about anthems and victories of national tennis players, travel compulsively without the places passing by them, and they are worried about very different things than those that might worry me. ».
Something that doesn’t have to be bad: «I try not to judge if mine is good or theirs is bad, but it is a bit of a portrait of things that have happened around me. As the song says, the important thing is to be a good person, and in the end you realize that although life changes, the feelings remain and are stronger than anything, that is why life separates, but if the bond is strong we always return.
«Friends of ours from adolescence have become gentlemen and ladies of customs at 35 years old»
As for the lustrous arrangements of ‘Siempre Volver’, the Brazilian influence has been much commented on, but they also take us to the most ostentatious 70s of Spanish pop: Costa Fleming, Rafael Trabucchelli, Antón García Abril… But the inspiration of Carlangas It doesn’t exactly come from there: «I don’t control much of what you’re talking about, but I would love to investigate it. I know that Costa Fleming was a party area in Madrid that I knew about through a book by Iñaki Domínguez, but I don’t know what music was playing. And Trabucchelli arranged Jeanette records from what I see on Wikipedia, so it looks great. I think Jeanette’s albums are wonderful. I was obsessed with Jorge Pardo’s flute in the song ‘Badajoz’ from the album ‘Rock Gitano’ by Pata Negra and I also shared an obsession with Fer for ‘Força Bruta’ by Jorge Ben Jor. Those Spanish guitars played on the porch of a house watching the sea on a sunny afternoon.
He adds, in general, about his latest album: «’Bailódromo Vol.1′ was born from a need that we had to find a defined sound to defend live all the songs that I am doing. It’s almost a test bed that led to an album. For this we listened to a lot of music, we did a lot of tests and we found an aesthetic and a way of doing things that made these songs arrive. Tim Maia, Novos Baianos, Jorge Ben Jor, on the other hand Pata Negra or Manzanita; and let’s say that to bring it to this century, I love how Steve Lacy treats instruments or how he integrates Ralphie Choo flutes, for example. This is one side of many, which is why the album is punk at times, it is luminous as in ‘Always Return’, or nocturnal at other times. “It helped me find myself and let’s say that it marks the end of the initial stage of CARLANGAS and it gave me energy and confidence to continue making music and start with a more ambitious LP that I have had in my head for a long time.”
