I was all like complaining, on my previous post, about how ZZK Records didn’t release enough new music in 2011 and minutes after that post went live I found out about this. Fauna‘s second album Manshines is ready to drop and we can already stream all the songs on soundcloud!
This is a very significant release for the Zizek family. Federico Rodríguez, A.K.A. Catar_sys, half of the Fauna duo, died last year soon after he was done recording the vocals for this album, so he never got to listen to the finished, mixed down, result. In some way then, Manshines is like Fede’s testament. And if Fede’s will was that we keep on dancing like crazy to his music after his departure, well, I think he’s got that wish granted.
Manshines shows a great evolutionary leap from Fauna’s debut in ’08. And that’s mainly because during the years that followed since that release, the duo from Mendoza, Argentina has toured the world as the flag ship of the Zizek collective, providing some of the best live performances in the whole global electropical scene. And with that much traveling came a lot of new musical influences too. Unlike their previous opus that was pretty much all stuck to the same formula (all the songs are exactly 90BPM), Manshines delivers aesthetic versatility and a wide range of rhythms that goes way beyond just cumbia, making things a lot more interesting. Another factor that contributed to this was the various collaborations with several producers like Chancha Via Circuito, El Remolón, Daleduro and Frikstailers.
The sad part is that we won’t be able to see this album played live the way it was conceived, with both Color Kit and Catar_sys sharing the mic. But that doesn’t mean Fauna is done touring. Color Kit continues with the project and invited on board another ñu-cumbia luminaire, Un Mono Azul, to join him on stage for their tours and probably for their future recordings too.
Manshines is set to release this month in their homeland, Argentina, and in January 2012 for the rest of the world.
Fauna – Manshines (ZZK Records 2011) by zzkrecords