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La Perra — Rodando
(Bandcamp no#, 2023, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2023-07-21

Rodando Cover art

La Perra is an instrumental avant-garde progressive power duo from Mexico City who got their start in the mid-90s. The members are drummer and percussionist Perico, and bassist Elena Sanchez, and some may have caught their live outdoor performance at Baja Prog, around 2007-ish — it was quite a spectacle, just the two of them on stage battling it out between bass and drums. At that point the duo had already released three compact discs — La Perra (1998), Fricción Visual (2001) and Romance con ia Ira (2006) — the first two were particularly interesting because they judiciously overdubbed some guitars on many of the tracks. The dominant instruments were still drum kit and bass guitar, but the overdubs added an additional dimension that wasn’t present in their live set. Don’t get me wrong, these are two incredibly powerful musicians, Perico “El Payaso Loco” is an amazing drummer who is equal to the best of them, a highly articulate and eclectic monster behind the kit who pushes hard and propels their sound forward. Likewise, Sanchez is a powerful bassist who drives her instrument with abandon, hard, loose and heavy, with amazing technique to spare. What happened from 2006 until 2022 isn’t clear, apparently they continued playing live shows regularly, but only recorded the occasional single track here and there along that timeline, which makes Rodando their first album in 17 years. And it’s a double album too, 28 tracks across 90 minutes of intense bass-and-drum pugilism with only occasional diversions (the kalimba / electronics track at the end of disc one “1, 2, 3 Sirenas” comes to mind immediately, or occasional vocal bits on other cuts), and there are no guitar overdubs on this one, it seems it was recorded live in the studio, with occasional live tracks shuffled in, and maybe six cuts from the earlier albums are re-recorded for whatever reason. Rodando is avant-garde crazy curious and boasts many amazing performances throughout, but it can also be a bit samey over the long haul, so be warned. You got this!

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): La Perra

More info
http://laperrarockdecamara.bandcamp.com/album/rodando

 

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