Dënver
Música, gramática, gimnasia

I ventured into the Land of Toys of this Chilean duo with all the doubts and prejudices in the world (WHO wouldn’t have them…?). With the same wariness of someone about to swallow a spoonful of particularly bitter syrup. Milton Mahan and Mariana Montenegro have no qualms about openly declaring their idols and references - Boy George above all, but also a certain Liverpool synth-pop and the entire late-seventies Disco scene… except that, if it’s said by two who debuted in 2006 displaying COMPLETE ease in using keyboards, Korg electronic drums and old sound effects from those years, a bit of fear - it’s clear - cannot but come upon you. We’re talking about poorly aged sounds, now identified as something relegated to a bygone period… the EVIL par excellence to the ears of those who would like that period (with its ghosts) buried and forgotten forever. I do not exclude that someone might have already left this page after reading (perhaps) too much…

And yet, and yet, and yet… these Denver (to be written with an umlaut on the E, otherwise the search engine will take you to Colorado instead of the Andes) have their own significance, and the right personality to undertake ambitious projects while maintaining a profile of total anti-celebrities, an image that keeps them well away from the most annoying stereotypes of export Latin pop. Their third long-playing album, "Fuera De Campo", has just been released, and I've been listening to it these weeks: nothing less than an album constructed like a concept, starting from the related videos. Just this would be enough to understand that we are talking about something special. Another aspect that distinguishes them is their success (a difficult feat, but accomplished…) in sounding original by assembling ideas and solutions completely OUT-OF-CONTEXT for the 2000s of the Third Millennium, much closer to Giorgio Moroder's Musicland-sound than to contemporary so-called indie-pop; which most of the time is little "indie" and very "pop", and not even the best, as is known…

Imagine listening to one of their albums (any of the three released so far is fine, although my preference goes to the one from three years ago here) as a visit to the playground where you grew up and haven’t returned to for years, the park where - amidst slides and swings - you will find the sounds of your musical "childhood". Because maybe when "younger" you didn’t yet listen to King Crimson or Univers Zero that you would have discovered as "adults", and in the 2/3 minutes of a 45 rpm of the lightest and most carefree thing you can imagine was all the sense of your sonic day, without asking yourself why and how. In Denver, who live on stage hint at a cover of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?", and who don’t tell you they listened to Dylan as teenagers just because it’s effective to say, you see a bit of yourself when at 14 (just an example among many) you listened to "Kissing To Be Clever"… you see a past that would be foolish to deny, what it has been but can still be - maybe only for three-quarters of an hour of pure easy-listening of (a certain) quality. 

But it’s just a suggestion I throw out there, just a reading key. Because the project of the two from San Felipe does not rest on the simple nostalgia effect: you listen to "Mùsica, gramàtica, gimnasia" and you understand that the talent and writing are there, definitely, and if supported by this quoting vein of the radio sound of thirty years ago - even in its more trivial sides, as in "Olas Gigantes" - it certainly isn’t a limit. In their case, it becomes the added value. Catchy but not banal melodies, well-orchestrated choral constructions (he and she have two exceptionally similar timbres) and arrangements for strings and horns are the recurring points of a complete, eclectic style. Which in these three years has become a trademark. It goes without saying that those who avoid certain sounds like the plague will not withstand 10 seconds of this album. But in the meantime, the Chilean underground (it could be a detail, it could also leave one indifferent) celebrates the project of Milton and Mariana - with a touch of exaggeration... - as "la perfecta artesanìa de una canciòn pop". 

It is a craftsmanship conducted on the basis of many but sure models, see the "Moroderian" symphony of "Mi Primer Oro": a carnival display of multiple instrumental layers and pure ABBA-style Disco Music keyboard effects - not the one that resonates the most with me but compelling to the limits of contagious, with so much of that funk bass that you have many opportunities to appreciate, in these 45 minutes. Not that less attention was given to the lyrics: in "Diane Keaton" the Woody Allen of "Annie Hall" is staged, with the background of an electric piano and typically "seventies" chords (splendid minor passages) that closely watch the soundtracks of the era. A bit too conventional "Lo Que Quieras" (good as a single but not very interesting), while the track that best highlights the completeness of the style is "Los Adolscentes": almost seven minutes of electronic base, single-riff electric guitar and Mariana’s voice inventing a sort of relentless dance nursery rhyme; that in the finale transforms into a psychedelic kitsch explosion of synthesizers and noises - destined to turn many people’s stomachs inside out, I do not deny it... "Feedback" could have been recorded in '82 or '83, literally. "En Medio de una Fiesta" and "Cartagena" confirm to me that it was really worth it: the album deserves it, THEY deserve a big applause. And even outside their country, it has been understood, so many are the positive reviews.

But never as in this case… it’s the ears (and each one's "youthful" listens) that have the final word.