I’m really skeptical when it comes to new takes on old folk staples. Whether they’re rhythms or specific songs, often times the re-imagining or re-purposing of the old seems like a cheap and predictable avenue toward quick Likes and nostalgia-ridden followers that nine times out of ten just fucks up a perfectly good (and should-be unfuckwithable) thing.
“Me cansé de rogarle” is another in a long string of tequila-drenched numbers for self-pitying males by Mexican ranchero legend José Alfredo Jimenez, though it’s mostly familiar to people because it was interpreted countless times on celluloid by Actor-Singer-Songwriter-Demigod: Pedro Infante. It doesn’t really get more unfuckwithable than that sombrero-wielding duplet, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that Mexihco City’s El Velar belongs to that exceptional one-tenth that manages to fuck with–and not fuck up–a classic.
The pulsating drone that drives the song is a sample lifted straight from Throbbing gristle’s “Convincing People”–convincing us that, in fact, such a concoction is actually a good idea–rendering this less a cover and more of a mash-up. El Velar manages the odd feat of turning a heart-break classic into a (Mexican) horror story, interspersing the mostly monotonous vocals with concrète-style sound design in a maelstrom of wails, machines, and disembodied guitars that simply works. So if you’ve ever been curious as to what a Post-Punk Pedro Infante sounds like, keep wondering cause this ain’t it (and I guess that’s a good thing?).
Look for this in the Txema Novelo (EUAL) directed independent film, Love Limits, which you may now stream at your leisure on Vimeo. It also includes songs from EUAL’s own Dr. Bona (who produced this number), as well as music by Casino Shangai and others. Worth a look or listen or both.