Gabriel Garzon-Montano - Aguita - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This will come as no surprise to those who've followed GGM since 2014's Bishouné Alma Del Huila, the critically-lauded, self-produced EP that put him on the map, and served as sample fodder for a handful of popular music's most iconic artists. His follow-up LP, 2017's Jardin, melded classical and folkloric instruments with rnb, hip-hop, and cumbia, proving once again that Gabriel is totally comfortable making transformative, funky, cathartic records all by himself. Agüita, his first for Jagjaguwar, is a sequence of impossibly diverse offerings ranging from trap anthems to string-drenched art pop ballads - a prismatic self-portrait, personal and universal all at once. The artist is present, and he is in final form. Garzón-Montano's ability to execute a wide range of musical styles is his secret weapon - and so it is no wonder he bristles at the prospect of settling into any one genre. InchGenre has never been a consideration,Inch he says. InchThe idea of genre uses fear of failure as a baseline. Genre puts the music in a box. This album is anti-genre. Anti-fear. Anti-box.Inch What remains is an ultra-personal journey through the three separate characters that constitute GGM's personality the debonair leading man, the wistful impressionist, and the Latino Urbano hitmaker. In this life, a first-generation American, born in Brooklyn to French and Colombian parents, can marry 808s with 19th-century art song, and catch a million plays in a weekend. In this life, old school analog tape and autotuned, varispeeded androgyny live together in perfect harmony, and the algorithm meant to guide us to our next playlist is of no use. In this life, big brujo energy means blunts and 3 inch heels; it means Appolonia's hands around you from the back of that motorcycle; it means nueva cancion, and reggaeton; it means the rabid, joyful individualism of funk - of oneness - of the one. (