Macaco

"Learn languages, even those that don't exist". Of the great sayings by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, this is Macaco's favorite. Nothing strange in an artist that has made COMMUNICATION, yes upper case, the principal objective of his career. Since, in 1997, he decided to start the project using his name, "El Mono Loco" (The Crazy Monkey) he's always held close that there is no point to mix different types of music from different latitudes if one doesn't understand the cultural constants that make them possible. There is no doubt that his new album, "Ingravitto" (Mundo Zurdo - Capitol, 06), is the payoff of his bet on exchange as source of knowledge, the goal of this journey of learning on the run, the reliable test that he has already found and that others are still searching for.

Stimulated by an expressive urge that, far from diminishing, with time it grows stronger, "Ingravitto" inserts texts in French, English, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish inviting anyone to listen. Five languages, one for every continent, in a work that demonstrates that the voice of Macaco has definitively reached maturity. And not only in the literal sense, this frame of mind that one of his most famous friends defined as the perfect cross between Bob Marley and Gato Pérez, but more so in the figurative: his place in the authors' world, an aesthetic and ethic enclave that advocates the universality of the local and praises the essence of popular music.

Critically celebrated all over the world, the double-disk "Entre raíces y antenas" (Between roots and antennas) (Munco Zurdo - Capitol, 04), has already passed into history as on of the most ambitious disks ever published in Spain. Passport for a tour that took him to perform live in Mexico, Brazil, Denmark, Holland, Belguim, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Japan and Taiwan, transformed Macaco into an artist of artists. His recent intervention in the anthology "Cosa Nostra" (K, 06), by Los Patriarcas de La Rumba, in the new albums from La Banda Iónica, Nubla, Zuco 103, Amparanoia or Carlos Jean and in the version of the European mega-hit "Big City Life" that the British group Mattafix are touring with, completes a resume that ends only in admiration. A list of works that headed his first two LP's, "El mono en el ojo del tigre" (Edel, 99) and "Rumbo Submarino" (Edel, 01), that includes the foundation, together with Juanlu "El Canijo" and Ramón Jiménez, of Ojos de Brujo, productions and mixes commissioned by David Byrne for Los de Abajo and King Chango and cameos in the soundtrack of "Amnesia" (Gabriele Salvatore, 02). This is how, the inventor of hymns such as "S.O.S.", "Inkomunikao" or "Todos" has developed, affirming his individuality, travelling farther than just fusion with his feet on the floor and la mano levantá.

Recorded in the cosy atmosphere of "El Murmullo", a studio not under the tyranny of a clock, and mastered by Chris Athens in Sterling Sound in New York (The Roots, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and a long ect.), "Ingravitto" inaugurates a new era of Macaco. Produced in the company of Jules Bikôkô and Roger "Ferrero" Rodes, starting with "Sideral", an injection of the future of Spanish pop, transpires optimism on all sides: the burst of energy of "Con la mano levantá", Muchachito Bombo Infierno in "Crece la voz" and, with the collaboration of two heavyweights from the "Carioca" scene - the percussion group Nacão Zumbi and the ex Planet Hemp B-Negão, in the funkadelic euphoria of "Brasil 3000". These are not the only highlights: the Italian rapper Caparezza lights up "Las luces de la ciudad", Ms. Maiko gives a Canary Island's accent to the fun-filled "Como el Agua Calé" and La Mari (Chambao) awakes the marvellous "Somos luz". Well backed by the faithful Paul de Swart, Macaco discovers new textures and colours. This disk, the most danceable of his immaculate journey, beats all expectations to prove that, like the boomerangs that prefer not to return, Macaco has chosen freedom.