Née: Matías Cena, Francisco Toledo, Patricio Cena, Manuel Salvat, Andrés Jorquera, Matías Ordenes, and Ismael Palma
Raíces: Santiago de Chile
Sounds like: Abeja with an orchestra-arsenal of weird bluegrass instruments and Chilean dudes on lead vocals.
You should listen to Matias Cena & Los Fictions because… you always wanted to ride a horse down from the the U.S. American grasslands down to Chile.
Matías recorded his first albums It Is The Salt and We All Lie – Vol.1 Spies between 2008 and 2009 in his makeshift home studio as a solo project, after leaving a hardcore band he played with for 7 years. From January 2010 to April 2011, Matías’ band went through a second phase makeover that transformed the band into a new Latin alt-country group, which we all know, is at the stage right now. Their music is refreshing, despite the trend, if only because folk influences and traditional, guitar-rock focused reverence is always needed to break the monotony of electro-dark hipsters coming up in the underworld of Latin coolness. Somewhere between Jumbo and a more Devendra Banhart, or the less romantic and isolated renditions of Diego García, you’ll find the post-rock garage gristle of Los Fictions.
Matías Cena & Los Fictions‘ softer moments remind me, loosely, of Jackson C. Frank. If the band were to tone it all down and stretch back to absolute bluegrass simplicity, they might catch the lonely beauty of Guy & Candie Carawan or the crooning grace of Pete Seeger. Even if you aren’t convinced that the Latin American take on U.S. Americana isn’t apt or versed enough in oral traditions or twang-history, we can all take comfort in the promise that these garage band innovators probably all had hippie folks who were listening to weird psychedelic acoustic stuff like Vashti Bunyan back in the day — even if your own U.S. American parents definitely weren’t.
On their third release Arauco Cajún this year, the production itself merits the noted accolade of all its participants. This honky-tonk, country-rock delight was recorded by Perrosky at Algorecords and mastered in Buenos Aires, Argentina by Gonzalo “Bird” Rainoldi.
If you like M. Ward, Johnny Cash and everything in between, you’ll get a horse-kick-in-the-saddle from Matías Cena & Los Fictions. Download four exclusive tracks off aforementioned record for FREE.