Recommended: La Pingo’s Orquesta – “Peregrino”

 

Peregrino has got a little something of everything.  The motion of the music is tango and tropanka, waltz and twist, foot taps and head bops and long slow dances with someone held close.  It’s music from Argentina and Mexico and the Balkans and NYC to the north and Tuscon to the south.  This music is the salt of the earth and the story of the roots.  There are moments when it is possible to get in sync with the surroundings, where the electric hum of The City is indistinguishable from the sound of blood flowing through veins and the heart beating like it means it.  On their newest album, La Pingo’s Orquesta taps into that moment.

The get-up-and-go groove of “La Fiesta De Las Cochinillas” and the beer hall sway of “Tio Gustavo” celebrate life that flows exactly as god intended.  “El Funeral Del Astronomo” keeps a happy little bounce going even as it tears things up on guitar or swells up with massive, gorgeous harmonies, and every one of the sudden changes in tone and direction are not unlike a day in the life.  The edge of “La Huida” and the moonlight glow of “Ancianos” and gentle melodic waves of “Sebastian” aren’t so much songs in an album than they are hours in a day.  The entirety of this magnificent recording is so full of life it could easily be pass for one.  It has a presence that hints at so much more that can be revealed in an album’s liner notes or its compositions.  It has a rich personality.  It’s got gravitas.

Easily one of the best things to come out, thus far, in 2017.

Your album personnel:  Gerardo Castmu (guitar), Edgar Estrada (clarinet), Yarib Bautista (violin), Marco Gregoire (double bass), Claudio Gardea (drums), José Lara (trumpet) and guest:  Gabriela Bernal (vocal).

Released on Ropeadope Sur.

Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon