Thursday 10 May 2012

yho15 - What A Life! The Story of the Light Blues



The fifteenth edition of YHO was subtitled ‘Adventures in Uruguayan Pop Music: 1965-1980’.  It was put together to complement a mixtape of vintage Uruguayan sounds.  The cover for both, beautifully designed by Per-Christian Hille, featured Diego Forlan who with his team mates, affectionately known as ‘the light blues’, lit up the 2010 World Cup.  In a similar way explorations of Uruguayan pop music proved be revalatory.
It’s fascinating to trace the development of the music made in Uruguay during this period, from the early garage and beat responses to the more psychedelic and progressive sounds.  Things got really interesting as elements of African and Uruguayan traditional rhythms were utilised, and the music evolved along the lines of the Brazilian tropicalia movement, with its own enigmatic heroes like Eduardo Mateo.  The political coup of 1973 made life difficult for rock music to flourish, and as elsewhere under repressive regimes musicians used folk music as a subversive outlet.  There really was some incredible music made in this period.
Among those featured are:
Los Mockers and Los Shakers
El Kinto and Totem
Limonada
El Sindykato
Eduardo Mateo and Jorge Trasante
Diane Denoir
Jaime Roos

The mixtape itself can be found here ...

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