{"id":4833,"date":"2016-06-01T12:06:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T16:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=4833"},"modified":"2016-06-17T15:43:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T19:43:00","slug":"maria-usbeck-amparo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/maria-usbeck-amparo\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Usbeck <br>Amparo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Maria_Usbeck-Amparo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4834\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Maria_Usbeck-Amparo.jpg\" alt=\"Maria Usbeck, Amparo\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Maria_Usbeck-Amparo.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Maria_Usbeck-Amparo-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Maria Usbeck\u2019s solo debut, <i>Amparo<\/i> (Cascine), is a record of subtle hooks and profound but complicated joy and wistfulness. Recorded with Chairlift\u2019s Caroline Polachek, this first collection of songs by the former Selebrities frontwoman sung in her native Spanish paints a three-dimensional world in acoustic colors.<\/p>\n<p>It is the percussion that strikes you first. The marimba is frequently the most prominent sound element on <i>Amparo<\/i>, its glassy notes bouncing back the light of the melody, but also bending and shifting that light, revealing a multiplicity of colors and disrupting the easy flow of those deceptively simple melodies in a way that\u2019s never jarring. The layered hand drums on the gorgeous piano ballad \u201cUno De Tus Ojos\u201d give the song a subtle propulsion that\u2019s almost reminiscent of techno without overwhelming the delicacy of the piece. Those drums create a backdrop for some of her strongest singing to find its own organic rhythm, slipping between, subverting, and teasing those harder beats. \u201cPlaya Escondida\u201d paints the Mexican beachfront with beats closer to a dance party, but also shade the narrative and aren\u2019t content with just pushing forward.<\/p>\n<p>But Usbeck\u2019s voice is also striking. A wordless background vocal rises and dips and never quite repeats the same way on \u201cIsla Magica.\u201d On \u201cMoai Y Yo,\u201d she shifts from the foreground to background as she narrates in a relaxed mode reminiscent of Caetano Veloso. Meanwhile, \u201cPlaya Escondida\u201d moves from spoken word into diamond-hard rhythms, while \u201cLapislazul\u201d conjures the blue of the title in a voice that seems to teeter on the edge of the world.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional Andean music of Usbeck\u2019s childhood in Quito is conjured with the prominent use of pan flutes throughout the album. That breathy, woody tone is chopped up by low drums and silvery hi-hats on \u201cCamino Desolado,\u201d as Usbeck paints a picture of the eponymous desolate road in a voice alternately beckoning and warning, dropping into a whisper and fading out before surging back. Those flutes reappear as a key part of the backdrop of these very urban songs that also includes field recordings of rushing water and birds. <i>Amparo<\/i> insinuates instead of proclaiming and it\u2019s all the richer for it. Snatches of melody embed themselves in the listener\u2019s brain like the softest jagged shrapnel. There are things here to unpack for ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maria Usbeck\u2019s solo debut, <i>Amparo<\/i>, is a record of subtle hooks and profound but complicated joy and wistfulness. Recorded with Chairlift\u2019s Caroline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,1746,1745],"class_list":["post-4833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-cascine","tag-maria-usbeck"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Maria Usbeck Amparo - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/maria-usbeck-amparo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maria Usbeck Amparo - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maria Usbeck\u2019s solo debut, Amparo, is a record of subtle hooks and profound but complicated joy and wistfulness. 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