Originally a member of South American garage band Los Peyotes, Rolando Bruno is now a solo artist in his own right. He’s peddling the weirdest brew of salsa-garage-exotica heard outside of an Buenos Aires coke den.
Los Peyotes were on Dirty Water Records. Rolando dipped his toe in the solo artist water while still with them. Voodoo Rhythm Records is his new home. The label has a habit of signing weird and wonderful one-man bands (case-in-point: its owner Beat-Man) and Bruno is no exception to the rule.
Bruno marries MIDI sounds to assorted instrumentation, his own fuzz guitar and lounge bar vocalising. The output is very off-the-wall and more than a little psychedelic. Eastern guitar crosses paths with prog rock work-outs, electronic beats and cheesy organ sounds – sometimes in the same song. It’s all sung in Spanish.
There’s often no telling where a tune will wind up. The overall mood is Latin-American but you’ll have trouble stuffing “Baliazo” in any one musical box. It’s a little retro ‘70s, a lot dance-floor in a trashy garage way. This is the stuff of nightclub nightmares as the first light of the new morning creeps in a crack in the door and the hangover and mescaline kick in simultaneously.
Titles like “Falafel King” and “Thai Cumbia” give you a flavour for the multicultural sounds within.
Bruno might be a creature of the studio but he’s been touring this stuff extensively in his native Argentina and all over the festival circuit in Europe. It’s refreshing to hear someone so determinedly treat garage rock like a fly, turning it on its back and pulling its wings off.
