Review: Los Macuanos — Epílogo
Darkness fell on Macuanosland. Ruidosón champs are back with a somber chronology of 21st century’s Mexico. With few words, Los Macuanos manage to immerse the listener in an environment of distrust and despair that many Mexican citizens live every day, and piece together a compelling criticism of Mexican decadence.
Musically speaking, these songs departs from the ruidosón sound that Los Macuanos helped to shape during the 2010s. Los Macuanos sound darker and more mature, but the seed of their sound is still there. The main tracks offer a somber, darker, straighter sound, while the bonus tracks are definitely ruidosón. I cannot help to think that the genre that Los Macuanos created themselves will help to define and influence of Mexican electronic scene for years to come.
Being from Tijuana, Los Macuanos are no strangers to the causes and consequences of the war on drugs that the Mexican government embarked on several years ago. The record, titled Epilogo, takes the listener thru the different stages of that war on drugs. The record kicks-off the listener with a relatively optimistic and simple “Tierra Baldía” which sets the arena for the future that Mexico will experience. “Tierra Baldía”, empty land in English, is just the calm beginning of a rocky trip.
Fast forward two songs and you will find in “Los De Arriba” what Los Macuanos think is the core of today’s Mexico issues: economic inequality. In “Los De Arriba” the tension is built up with a robotic voice reciting the total net worth of wealthy Mexicans, spaced with carefully selected silences for dramatic effect and whose length increases according to the total worth of the individual. Carlos Slim, gets, of course, the longest silence. A silence that underlines the irony of today’s society: Mexicans literally dying of hunger, and Mexicans in the Forbes list of the wealthiest persons in the world. A silence that means success for some and death for others.
Los Macuanos continue with their criticism with “Soldado Sin Cara” and “Fuego Cruzado”, songs that the listener must understand as one, as “Fuego Cruzado” is the direct consequence of “Soldado Sin Cara”. Bluntly speaking, these two songs try to explain how the last 10 years of drug war came to shape the Mexico of 2017.
At the end, Los Macuanos have a dire omen: Mexico as a society is heading directly towards the precipice (El Precipicio) and straight to hell (9 Ríos). Have we reached this point? Are they speaking about the future, the present, or the past in these songs? I don’t know. Nobody knows. I will only be able to find it out when we have the benefit of hindsight.
In 9 Ríos, I think Los Macuanos are making a veiled reference to Mictlan, the underworld in Aztec mythology which has nine levels. Although it is possible that they are also making reference to Dante’s nine circles of hell. Anyway, the song ends with a nice touch of black humor: if we reach that point, it is game over. Game over with an 8-bit nostalgia.
PS: this is my interpretation of the record. The real interpretation of the songs may be different :)
