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CD
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MCR 111CD
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[no longer available for the US] This is the CD reissue of Señor Coconut's debut album originally released in 1997 on his own Rather Interesting label. El Gran Baile, released after he moved from Frankfurt to Santiago, Chile, is where the world first got a taste of the electrolatino mayhem that is Señor Coconut (Atom Heart, Uwe Schmidt). This record is a collection of tracks that reveal the scope of Schmidt's classic Latin records, cut-up and mixed-up with electronic fizz and pop. Frenetic electronics jut against hyperspeed Latin rhythms on some tracks, while mambo lounges with German coolness on others. Uwe Schmidt has crafted entirely new genres -- Nova Raro, Jive Eclectico, Samba Virtual -- that previously only existed in his expansive imagination. The results sound like a fusion of Perez Prado and Raymond Scott, tinged with triple-time breaks. Along with his rearrangements of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra, this debut release marks the first evidence of Schmidt's genius in rudimentary form. As Schmidt himself reveals, "[El Gran Baile]...became the prototype of the Electrolatino genre. Latino samples fused with the track logic of European electronic music."
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CD
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AY 011CD
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This is the latest installment in the vaunted legacy of Señor Coconut (Atom Heart, Uwe Schmidt), the world's only German/Chilean "electrolatino" interpreter of pop standards. This time out, Coconut -- famous for his laptop-mambo and acid-merengue covers of Kraftwerk, Sade and Michael Jackson -- is back with a proper Latin big band, fronted by the inimitable Venezuelan singer Argenis Brito, to pay homage to Kraftwerk's Eastern counterparts in the annals of techno-pop pioneers, Yellow Magic Orchestra. Making the orchestra that much more magical, all three of YMO's members -- Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto -- make guest appearances on the album. And rounding out the barmy, mixed-up social club, the album features a host of distinguished collaborators from all corners of the electronic-music world -- including Towa Tei, Burnt Friedman, Mouse On Mars, Akufen, Schneider TM and Nouvelle Vague's Marina -- in a series of playful, cryptic interludes that aim to crack open, once and for all, the mystery of Señor Coconut. Active from 1978 to 1983, YMO was, in many ways, Japan's answer to Kraftwerk, exploring the ways that pop songcraft could be rewired for a new era of circuitry. What distinguished them in their early years from their button-pushing, synthpop contemporaries around the globe was their intense, questing musicality -- YMO shrunk entire musical worlds to fit their motherboards. Depending on the selection, in YMO you can hear disco, jazz, funk, balladry, show tunes? You get the idea. "Yellow Magic" features a piano solo ripped straight from the Afro-Cuban tradition; "Pure Jam" sounds like a breakdancer's remake of Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles. It probably goes without saying that the same "globalizing" questions Schmidt explored in his Kraftwerk versions were in many ways already answered in YMO's own recordings, which combined Japanese technological advances with Japanese worldly curiosity, filtered through that country's geographical and cultural distance from the West. Is it any surprise, then, that in listening to Señor Coconut's mambofied versions, and then going back to the originals, it turns out that there was a sultry Latin streak running through YMO's chips all along? YMO's relentless sonic inquisitiveness -- which led all three members on to distinguished solo careers and powerhouse collaborations in pop, neo-classical, experimental music and soundtracks -- provides ample material for Schmidt and his collaborators. Once again, Coconut has convened a talented ensemble of Latin jazz players on vibraphone, marimba, double bass, horns and percussion, and Argenis Brito is back on the mic, crooning as only he can.
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12"
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AY 007EP
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The first set of remixes of "Behind The Mask" from the Yellow Fever album. Featuring remixers Ricardo Villalobos and Al Usher.
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12"
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AY 008EP
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The second set of remixes from the Yellow Fever album. Featuring the original single mix of "Behind The Mask," plus remixes by Original Hamster, Don Atom and Peter Rap.
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CD
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AY 007CD
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Subtitled: Legendary Latin Club Tunes. On Coconut FM, your host is Señor Coconut, the alter-ego of the legendary German electronica wizard Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart, Atom, etc.). Released by Germany's Essay Recordings, the label behind the popular Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats and Bucovina Club compilations -- Señor Coconut takes you through a tour of Latin America's alternative electronic music. Welcome to the Cocovina Club: congas and Casios? Puerto Rican rap and Spanglish splutter? Booty beats and Spanish guitars?! This must be Coconut FM. No, not Chilean microhouse, or Mexican psychotrance... we're talking genres like funk carioca (baile funk), cumbia, reggaeton, and oddball fusions of them all. Señor Coconut has explored these alternative dancefloor sounds -- music you might call Latin mutant disco -- and has pulled together a collection of songs from all over Latin America, from the Caribbean to the Southern Cone. All these genres share a common ground: they're all music of the people -- of the favela, the barrio, the villa. Funk Carioca is Rio's version of Miami bass, a furious fusion of electro beats and Portuguese rapping, shot through with rave, shameless samples, and bonkers sound effects. Six hot tracks from Vanessinha & Alessandra, Malha Funk, Os Carrascos, DJ Alexandre, Bonde Neurose, and Vanessinha Picatchu. Funky, fast, cheap and out of control -- it's adrenaline for the airwaves. Reggaeton -- the bastard child of Jamaican reggae, American hip-hop, and Panamanian and Puerto Rican barrio culture -- is one of the fastest-growing styles around. Tracks range from Tego Calderon's lazy "Cambumbo" to Peter Rap's electro-funk flavored "Punta." Also, Don Atom himself, aided by the Chilean rapper Tea Time, melts down reggaeton in a vat of acid techno. Cumbia -- originally a Colombian genre, took root in working-class villas and morphed into cumbia villera. It may sound the most traditionally "Latin" of any of the music here, but tradition, as Coconut FM proves, is a twisted path indeed. Gladys weighs in with kooky circus antics, and Los Pibes Chorros takes cumbia into gangsta territory with their boyz-in-da-villa anthem, "Llegamos Los Pibes Chorros." Whatever the case, wherever you come from, prepare to be surprised. If you're a Latin music aficionado, this record will give you a cross section of styles you won't likely hear in any one place. Coconut FM's signal picks up an urgent, strident cheekiness you probably haven't heard since rave's earliest days.
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