In this new Remezcla Música feature, we’ll introduce you to something to wake up for: some locally-known, but internationally-ignored noise makers. We’ll analyze their awesomeness (according to nosotros) and wonder WHY they’re relegated to collective zzz’s across the board. In today’s installment of Despierta, we spotlight Los Amparito, the folktronica face of Carlos Pesina, a worthy if not slept-on giant.
Carlos Pesina (no, Google, I don’t mean the guy who played Raiden in the bootleg Mortal Kombat) wears many hats. The young Guadalajaran prodigy, dubbed “niño genio” by Camilo Lara a while back, dabbles with monikers: Pepepe for his Poni Republic pop-electronica, Pesina Siller for his ambient tendencies, and since 2010, he can switch channels to Los Amparito, a group effort of psychedelia and folk.
The name harkens back to the lonches de amparito, a popular snack that apparently merited being immortalized as a band name. But the oomph behind Los Amparito is paying homage, not to delicious childhood snacks, but to the regional folkloric sounds that make up Mexico. Amparitos then give it an electronic facelift, thus you have folktronica of the future, or past, or today, or whatever time period this relates to. In past interviews Pesina has referred to the music as Huarache-gaze and Mariachi-wave, and fellow member Apache O’Raspi (from Suave as Hell) calls it “folktnic.”
Whatever it is, it makes you feel wonderful. There’s a beautiful euphoria in the music that resonates with everyone, even us non-Mexicans. I don’t need to know what amparitos are and who Amparo Ochoa is to know that this is fantastic music. It’s music that transcends, a hard feat when applying minimalism and the seemingly cold embrace of electronica. But Niño Genio did it again.
DOWNLOAD LOS AMPARITO AND OTHER CARLOS PESINA INCARNATIONS HERE TO HEAR WHAT WE HEAR.
Watch the video for “4500 millones de años de soledad” below directed by Jaiziel Hernández Máynez.