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Making Movies Is Making Us Dance In Our Office Chairs

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A Very Good Bilingual Indie Band From…. Kansas City?

By Marlon Bishop
March 1, 2013

Name: Making Movies

Where They’re From: Kansas City, Missouri

When They Started: 2009

Genre: Afro-Caribbean Indie

Most Similar: She’s A Tease, Astro

Sounds Like: Animal Collective’s secret unreleased Latin album.

Well, damn.

Who would have guessed that one of the most exciting new Latin acts to appear in a blue moon would materialize out of the presumed cultural sinkhole that is Kansas City, Missouri? Yet somehow, against all odds, Making Movies exists. The group is led by two Panamanian-American brothers, Enrique and Diego Chi, and I feel fully confident saying that the band synthesizes what’s happening in indie rock and in Latin music better than anyone else out there today.

Making Movies’ songs are rooted in heavy Afro-Caribbean percussion grooves – everything from salsa to cumbia and even reggaeton’s dembow. Yet as it fitting for a fully bilingual band (they sing in English and Spanish), they are equally fluent in the sonic language of indie rock as they are in Latin genres. The tunes are covered in sumptuous guitar ambiances, dotted with sly basslines, and topped by the pretty voice of singer Enrique Chi. Throughout, there are psychedelic flourishes that betray an adolescence spent listening to Pink Floyd records, especially present in the occasional orgiastic jam-outs that are equal parts symphonic rock and Cuban descarga.

Here’s the thing – most bands who try to do this kind of thing tend to be faking it a little bit on either the indie rock or the Latin sides, but Making Movies appears to pull-off both traditions flawlessly, and blend them in a way that you hardly notice they’re doing anything unusual at all, let alone something extraordinary.

Next week, Making Movies releases their second album, A La Deriva, beautifully produced by Steve Berlin of Chicano rock veterans Los Lobos. They’ll also be embarking on a big tour in the US and Puerto Rico. None of the new album tracks are publicly available online yet (you’ll have to take my word that they are muy bueno), but you can get a taste from this live video of “Pendulum Swing,” one of the new tunes. Spoiler alert: there is an extremely heady sax solo/percussion breakdown around the three minute mark that may or may not rock your face off.

Tags: Animal CollectiveAstroHOTindieKansas CitylatinLatin alternativeLatinoLos LobosMaking MoviesNorth AmericaPanamaShes a teaseUnited States
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