Blogarhythms

One of my favorite people extant is a member of the family who operates one of the premier Mexican eateries here in Western Massachusetts. This means I’m occasionally blessed with the opportunity to partake in the enjoyment of far more Mexican victuals than is probably healthy for one human being. The last few days have been just such an occasion. And while food almost never influences my choices in music (though the opposite can be true; Beat Konducta In India for example almost always makes me crave Chicken Tikka Masala) my mind wandered to a certain artist I’ve been meaning to cover here on Blogarhythms but have neglected to while chowing down on a plate of enchiladas, rice and black beans last night.

That artist is Natalia Clavier, coincidentally enough a Spanish-language singer from Buenos Aires in the South American nation of Argentina. I caught wind of the alluring young chanteuse’s ESL Music debut Néctar when I stumbled on the video for the track “El árbol” on YouTube a while back. At the time I didn’t realize it was a product of Thievery Corporation’s Eighteenth Street Lounge, so I wasn’t prepared for the turntable scratches, layered breakbeats, languid bass hum, moody piano chords (that sound like a Latin American rework of Mobb Deep’s “Survival of the Fittest”), twangy guitar strums and beautiful vocals I heard when I played the video. But with the likes of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton and Federico Aubele, all of whom she’s previously recorded and toured with, providing her soundscapes the laid back Latin-tinged Lounge vibe was nothing to wonder at.

Natalia Clavier “El árbol”

On the whole Néctar is chock-full of mollassus-coated bass throbs, the pop of syncopated percussion, the thud and snap of Hip-Hop influenced beats, soulfully jazzy keyboards, plush melodic textures, dubby effects and luxuriant orchestration. In fact, it sounds very much like a Thievery Corporation record, and revels in the ironically decadent sound of Gordon Gekko-gone-Globe-Trekker-esque Millenial Lounge and Trip-Hop. All those charmingly diverse World Music affectations possess an air of authenticity in the service of someone like Clavier who has a real connection to the cultural wellspring which produced them though. So when the album detours into sophisticated Sambas, Tangos, Bossa Novas and other “traditional” styles on “Ay de mí,” “Confusión,” “Mi Mentira,” “Tú que puedes vuélvete” and “Tiempo” it feels less like Sophisti-Pop revivalism than it otherwise could.

In fact, tunes like the sensuously rhythmic “Tiempo” — with it’s sheer sheen of glowing electric piano chimes, twinkling piano, urgent guitar picking, subtle horn outro and dreamlike multi-track reverb-accented harmonies from Clavier — and the hymn-like “Mi Mentira” — with a metronome-y tick-tocking woodblock keeping tempo for a piano-driven, accordion-kissed composition which finds Clavier at her most heart-aching — are some of my favorites. I think this may be due to the fact that some of the Lounge/Downtempo-oriented productions start sounding so much alike after a while. Luckily there are a few — like the slinky title track, which sounds like Al Green and Willie Mitchell composed a song for Portishead, which somehow got turned over to Sade, who recorded it with an eclectic Argentine Pop Orchestra instead — that are especially outstanding.

Natalia Clavier “Néctar”

I may not know what Argentine cuisine tastes like, or what music it might inspire me to listen to, but Natalia Clavier’s Néctar turned out to be quite the tasty Summertime delicacy.