El aparato

As requested by umbú.

I seriously didn't think I was going to be able to do this one because it's one of my favorite songs ever and the original is quite complex and unique, but then I accidentally ran into an old demo of the song and suddenly everything made sense: I had to play it as a son jarocho.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by micayetoca (13 comments total)

Love how that voice gets mysterious and ghostly (at 00:49 and 1:50). It's like some spirit moving around your head, or up and down a hallway...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 PM on March 14

And, hey, thanks for that last.fm link. Great stuff!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:44 PM on March 14

I don't know if you believe in "magic", but this song certainly is! I had a little bicycle work shop with my neighbor kids today and had this song playing the whole time.

Most of the kids around here are Spanish speaking kids and they were like, "So who is this that we're listening to?"

It was as if you sounded familiar to them in a sense AND why is this crazy gringo listening to this?

I replied to them, "That's my friend Micayetoca!". And almost at the same time they all nodded their heads, said "Oh, OK.", and went back to greasing their bicycle chains. For whatever reason, it seemed to make them all very happy!

A beautiful thing, and you are a gift to us micayetoca!
posted by snsranch at 7:39 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]

Great! Cuatro?
posted by chococat at 8:13 PM on March 14

Tres ?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:19 PM on March 14

Cuatro? Tres?

Actually, it's a jarana, which is one of a set of instruments from the region of Veracruz that are used to play son jarocho. Son jarocho in its natural form is campesino music (sorry for the Spanish, but to say "farmer music" or "country music" sounded weird), here you can see a little clip of some people playing it in its natural environment. As you can see, they use that wooden platform (la tarima) as the percussion. It's lovely music, and its always accompanied with beautiful lyrics.

Love how that voice gets mysterious and ghostly

That wasn't very traditional of me, I know, but it's Café Tacuba song after all, so it had to have that. The original has a very beautiful break in that part.

I don't know if you believe in "magic"...
Thanks for that whole comment, man, it's the nicest thing someone has responded to the songs I've posted here.
posted by micayetoca at 6:24 AM on March 15

Love how that voice gets mysterious and ghostly


Forgot one thing. In the song, the "narrator" is telling how he ran into his friend Pablo, who told him he had been abducted by an UFO. He doesn't believe him and then doesn't see him for a while. Later he receives a letter from a hospital saying Pablo has skin burns, lost his sight and can't say anything else than "I know he will come after me, and he'll take me to a garden". That phrase is what the ghostly voice (and the final three voice chorus) is saying.
posted by micayetoca at 6:35 AM on March 15

YEs! This is really awesome. I like how you didn't stick unnecessarily closely to the rhythm and cadence of the original. I'm so glad you did this--what a great song.
posted by umbú at 11:32 AM on March 15

Beautiful! It made me smile, even if its not a happy story.

If this is a son jarocho, what would the original song be? I'm more familiar with corridos and tambora.
posted by clearlydemon at 5:19 PM on March 17

The original, in my opinion, doesn't really belong to a specific genre, it's a crazy combination of many things. I'm glad you liked it.
posted by micayetoca at 11:03 AM on March 18

What an great song. I like the singing at the end. I don't think I've ever heard you do it like that.
posted by dagosto at 2:42 PM on March 19

I have a couple of Tacuba albums -- not the one with this song, apparently, but I can still hear it in there.

I like the vocals -- the non-ghost ones sound like you're really having fun.

Nice and infectious.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:20 AM on March 20

This one is the opening track in an album called "Re", which is one of my favorite albums ever. 20 songs in different genres, great cover, great sound. Lovely album, you should definitely look for it.
posted by micayetoca at 7:13 AM on March 21