Album Notes

A recent article wrote of Yezve: “There is a rapidly emerging genre of Latin music called Latin Alternative and [frontman] Chano Santamaria … may well be on the forefront of shaping and molding it”. A bold declaration but not unreasonable. For a genre intending to function contrary to highly polished Latin Pop, its artists are now producing glossy records which have resulted in a diluted sense of ‘alternative’. Herein lies the significance of a curiously fresh sound offered by Yezve. Recorded in a living room rather than an isolated studio via out-of-date recording equipment, Monocultura contains an organic cutting-edge sound beyond the reach of labels. Simply put, Yezve is on the forefront because its there with its listeners. The album title seems to reference this locale of 3rd world economy, pan Latin-Americanism, and Monophonic sounds. Critics have rejoiced in the eclecticism of Latin Alternative but this has proven to be the path of least resistance where artists abandon responsibility to substance in the name of fusion and culture. Given the struggle of its audience, the indulgence is insulting. Yezve is the soundtrack for an audience who has seen complacency rise to pandemic levels. The genre has began to emphasize machines-creating-art rather than art being mechanism meanwhile forgetting that in times of struggle people turn to songs, not machines. Bawdy, carnavalesque, haunting, spiritually reverent, and flat-out unusual and weird – beneath the description of Yezve is an undeniable pop-sensibility. The band never asks its listeners to abandon what they know best - the potency of song. Somewhere in the margins and away from formulae is where Yezve is located and it’s here where listeners are put back on the forefront of an emerging genre in becoming familiar with Monocultura.