And New Album “EL OBJETO ANTES LLAMADO DISCO” Praised As:
“ambitious, groundbreaking and quite simply, superb... The album has the depth, breadth and exploration of the later works of The Beatles… this may be the best moment to discover one of the most remarkable artistic collectives of our time”-AP
The First New Album In Five Years From The Legendary Latin Alternative Band Is Greeted With Glowing Reviews From The New York Times,
The Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, NPR, AllMusic & More
“****/FOUR STARS - Café Tacuba celebrates the art of creative meandering... Café Tacuba doesn't chase fads…But the band displays its mastery of 21st century electronic intertextuality …"Objeto" [is] an object of obscure desire, filled with tantalizing possibilities about where rock may be headed, and how, and why.”
– Los Angeles Times
“It’s good to have [Café Tacva] back. Rubén Albarrán, an astonishing singer, brings his full game …But what really seems new on “El Objeto” is its degree of introspection. Also, while its lyrics can be as fractured and imagistic as ever, emotionally it’s the warmest album Café Tacvba has made.”- New York Times
“Mexico's favorite indie rock heroes Café Tacuba reinvent their own crazy wheel with El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco. Since the band has always recorded infrequently, each recording is an event. … at the very threshold of 21st century indie pop - these ten songs prove that they are, quite literally, one of the finest and most adventurous rock bands in the world. 4 ½ Stars” – ALL MUSIC
“This is their 7th studio album in their 20 years of making groundbreaking music that seamlessly fuses sounds and genres, and without fail, this is another masterpiece …Their vast repertoire only seems to get better with every new album they release. El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco is a manifestation of Café Tacvba’s evolution and maturation that excites the listener with each track — they remain fresh and energetic which is impressive considering their longstanding career as pioneers of Mexican rock. If this is what aging gracefully sounds like then it makes me look forward to the future.” – Remezcla Music
“*****/Five solid stars! - one of the most anticipated Latin music albums of the year. The Bottom Line: Cafe Tacvba's new album is remarkable. …If you are looking for something 'outside of the box,' Cafe Tacvba's new album is your best shot right now.”- About.com:“Latin Music”
“El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco” (The Object Previously Called An Album)
Is Currently Leading All iTunes Sales In Mexico
– Topping All Other New Releases
In Keeping with The Live Recording Nature Of The Album, CAFÉ TACVBA Unveiled “El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco” To Press Yesterday In Mexico City With A Special Live Performance
Expanded Review Quotes On Café Tacvba’s Just Released “El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco”
“Cafe Tacvba hits new mark with 'El Objeto': Cafe Tacvba may be one of the most important rock bands alive…The new album from Mexico's fantastic quartet proves they don't really care what you might think or whether or not they get air play. Cafe Tacvba have spent the five years since its last album creating a body of work that is ambitious, groundbreaking and quite simply, superb. The album, whose title means "The Object Formerly Called an Album," has the depth, breadth and exploration of the later works of The Beatles, with touches of progressive rock and the band's own unique recipe of electronica combined with Mexican folkloric sounds and pre-Colombian rhythms. "El Objeto" expands the poetic and philosophical talents of the band, with lyrics that explore mysticism, eternity and the common roads of existence. Some 20 years have passed since Albarran, a former art student, and his buddies released Cafe Tacvba's first album. For those who have followed their career, it has been a fortunate time to be a fan. For everyone else, this may be the best moment to discover one of the most remarkable artistic collectives of our time.”
–Michelle Morgante, Associated Press- 10/23/12
“The great Mexican rock band Café Tacvba has made its first album in five years, and, as usual, it tried a new idea. “El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco” was recorded before studio audiences of a few hundred people in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Santiago, Chile …The band did it this way, Mr. Albarrán has explained, because songs get better when played in front of people who don’t know them. These sessions were a more controlled form of public debuts. …And so it is here. It’s good to have it back. Some of the new songs connect to Tacvba’s past: the implication of son jarocho, the traditional Veracruz string-band music, in “Olita del Altamar” (combined with surf guitar and machine beats); the warped disco in “Yo Busco”; the episodic structure and changes of key in “Andamios”; the postmodern bolero of “De Este Lado del Camino,” the album’s first single, a song that seems to be about accepting one’s circumstances in life with humility. Mr. Albarrán, an astonishing singer, brings his full game: his growl and his teenage whine, his full-throat ballad sound, his phasing effect on long vowels by closing his mouth around them or sticking his tongue out. But what really seems new on “El Objeto” is its degree of introspection. Also, while its lyrics can be as fractured and imagistic as ever, emotionally it’s the warmest album Café Tacvba has made. “Zopilotes,” in waltz time with a chiming guitar line, sounds like a future wedding-dance standard, though the words describe buzzards circling in the sky. …the band also lets you know that it hasn’t lost interest in its old achievements. “Andamios” is Café Tacvba at its best. It proceeds from straight, spiky eighth-note new wave to a brief middle-Easternlike bridge, moving through two key changes that you feel in your stomach. It its final strain Mr. Albarrán yields the microphone to two other members in the band, and by the time it’s finished the song has built a completely different atmosphere from what it started with.”
- Ben Ratliff, New York Times – Lead Music Review – 10/23/12
“****/FOUR STARS - On "De Este Lado Del Camino," the third track from their new album, Café Tacuba celebrates the art of creative meandering. "From this side of the street, without looking for any destination / and although the design isn't very clear," lead singer Rubén Albarrán intones in Spanish, his gravelly honeyed tenor guiding the rhythm section through a gathering storm of ethereal keyboard chords on its leisurely sojourn. Unhurried and unworried about the trail ahead, but sure of its ultimate purpose: that artistic approach has defined the Mexico City quartet and helped it endure for two decades as one of alt-Latin rock's most popular and influential acts. Its ironically titled new disc (with a nod to Prince, it translates as "The Object Previously Called a Record") was five years in the making, and during that interval Latin pop and rock have been swept up in the global electronic dance music craze. Café Tacuba doesn't chase fads as it carefully layers rock, R&B, hip-hop and Mexican regional influences. But the band — whose other members are keyboardist Emmanuel del Real, bassist Enrique Rangel and guitar player Joselo Rangel — displays its mastery of 21st century electronic intertextuality on songs like the hauntingly poetic "Zopilotes" (Buzzards) and "Volcan." Under the expert guidance of longtime producer Gustavo Santaolalla, "Objeto" becomes an object of obscure desire, filled with tantalizing possibilities about where rock may be headed, and how, and why.”
On Alt.Latino, we like to ask guests about the rol artists play during times of turmoil. Because we cover Latin America — where troubles abound and music frequently collides with politics — it's an important debate. Is the artist there to entertain and get people's minds off their problems, or to stimulate a meaningful conversation and even incite action? For the Mexican band Café Tacvba, being relevant meets documenting how its members have changed and grown as individuals — an ideology the band embraces on its deeply personal new album, El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco. The group's first new record in five years pulls off a remarkable feat: Coming two decades into Café Tacvba's career, it's as honest, humble and refreshing as the band's debut.
For those who don't know Café Tacvba, it's difficult to overstate its impact on Latin music since it first surfaced in the early '90s. Here's a great illustration of the passion it inspires: Earlier this year at the annual Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, I trudged from stage to stage with a group of fellow journalists. For a few days, we were part of the infrastructure that makes festivals work: photographers, cleaning people, security personnel and food salesmen who work while everyone else dances and moshes and eats. That is, until Café Tacvba took the stage. A sea of ecstatic young Mexicans flooded the grounds, sure, but you know a band is really popular when security guards, janitors, food salesmen and even journalists drop what they're doing to start dancing and singing along. Beyond the incredible live performance, what stunned me at the time was the rapport the Tacvbos, as they're known, have with their audience. It's that of a coffee-shop band which has been playing the same small venue for the same few patrons for years. They ask the crowd how they're doing, acknowledge the tough times, encourage everyone to be good to themselves. And they joke that it's been a while since we've seen them last — five years, to be exact. That's Café Tacvba's appeal: Its members are part wise men, part hilarious neighborhood kids complaining about a girlfriend. They know that, no matter how difficult life gets, we still have to deal with ourselves at the end of the day. El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco is fantastic: Reflective and lyrically gripping, Café Tacvba perfects its mix of Mexican folk, rock and electronica. It would have been easy to put out a record that continues riding what remains of the Latin rock wave, and maybe throws in a song about love and an obligatory socially conscious tune. What separates Café Tacvba from other icons of '90s Latin rock is the sense that these guys are just trying to figure things out, too. By releasing such a personal and introspective album — about universal issues like getting older, lusting after someone who isn't good for you, and seeking joy — they've created a record that captures and mirrors much of what Mexico faces today.
Jasmine Garsd, NPR Music “First Listen” – 10/19/12
“4.5 Stars- Five years after Sino, Mexico's favorite indie rock heroes Café Tacuba reinvent their own crazy wheel with El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco. Since the band has always recorded infrequently, each recording is an event. This set is a full-on attempt not only to evolve musically, but to reinvent the way they perceive themselves as a band. To that end, Café Tacuba producer Gustavo Santaolalla, producer Anibal Kerpel, and recording engineer Joe Chiccarelli recorded in front of studio audiences in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Santiago before taking the tracks into post-production. Stripped back to the core quartet -- we've not heard them this way since their earliest records -- Café Tacuba sought to erase boundaries between themselves and listeners, and simultaneously to take audience perceptions directly into the sound of the record, thereby confronting and expanding their previously held beliefs about who they were as an entity. Opener "Pajaros" starts with a singsong synth and Rubén Albarrán's falsetto, answered by guitars, more keyboards, and sprightly backing vocals. The album's first single, "De Este Lado del Camino" ("On This Side of the Road"), commences as a sparse synth ballad, only to be gradually built up by multi-tracked electric piano, guitars, and organic and synthetic percussion; it becomes a dramatic anthem. The very next cut, "Espuma," contains a breezy, gentle pop melody underscored with repetitive guitar lines from a folk melody, a lithe hook, and an infectious hook. "Yo Busco" is a bouncing rock tune with pulsing guitars countered by layers of synths, loops, and propulsive basslines as Albarrán's vocals cut right through the density. Set closer "Volcan" is almost elegiac, woven through with a narrative that comes more from folk music that it does pop, but its lush production and tapered textures carry the raw, sinuous emotion in Albarrán's vocal, and extend the corrido-like narrative to the very threshold of 21st century indie pop. Musically, this set walks a beautiful line between the rock & roll dynamics of Sino and the more atmospheric, electronic sounds of Cuatros Caminos and the production experimentations of Reves, and yet goes further than them all to become the most accessible recording in their catalog. With El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco, Café Tacuba have moved beyond the categorical confines of rock en español, despite being its very torchbearers. Instead, these ten songs prove that they are, quite literally, one of the finest and most adventurous rock bands in the world.”
-Thom Jurek All Music
“Mexico’s iconic quartet Café Tacvba is back with the remarkably named album, El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco (The Object Formerly Known as a Disc). This is their 7th studio album in their 20 years of making groundbreaking music that seamlessly fuses sounds and genres, and without fail, this is another masterpiece in its own right. The themes addressed on the album are more introspective and range from growing older to continually seeking your own truth. Café Tacvba’s band members are not only getting older and wiser, but are exploring what this means in their compositions. Musically, Café Tacvba has a keen ability to reinvent their sound and still manage to be relevant while doing so. …Cafeta’s album showcases their adept musicianship while exploring new sounds that they have been playing around with live and on more recent albums. Their vast repertoire only seems to get better with every new album they release. This is how bands should evolve and age gracefully. For those who haven’t heard or have kept up with Café Tacvba’s evolution in some time may be surprised to hear what they are doing now. Sonically, they’ve managed to keep their identity and enhance it with synths and drum machines while still using rhythms from around the world. They continue to explore their harmonies especially on the opening track “Pájaros” and continue to share the mic more often as in the excellent track “Espuma” and the goth-like “Aprovéchate.” As it has become a tradition with every new Cafeta release, lead singer Rubén Albarrán has a new moniker for this album as well, Zopilotes de alas blancas y cabeza negra. Zopilotes’ voice is still the prominent one throughout the 39 minute album and sounds fantastic on tracks like “Este lado del camino” and the album’s beautiful closing track “Volcán.” This new release is a great step forward for the maturing quartet that embarks on newer soundscapes and reflects on what it means to get older in a modern society. I look forward to seeing how these tracks will translate live and if they will influence how they interpret some of their greatest hits they have become known for. El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco is a manifestation of Café Tacvba’s evolution and maturation that excites the listener with each track — they remain fresh and energetic which is impressive considering their longstanding career as pioneers of Mexican rock. If this is what aging gracefully sounds like then it makes me look forward to the future.”
- REMEZCLA MUSICA, 10/22/12
“the popular Mexican Rock band Cafe Tacvba is back with a brand new 10-track CD entitled El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco (The Object Previously Called An Album). The following is an overview of one of the most anticipated Latin music albums of the year. Right from the very beginning, El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco was conceived as a very unique work. Loyal to their experimental approach to music and the constant interaction Cafe Tacvba maintains with their fans, the group recorded this album in different open studios across Latin America and the US. By inviting fans to the recording sessions (in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Mexico DF and Los Angeles, CA), Cafe Tacvba enhanced the whole production delivering an album that reflects the intimacy created by this experience. … After listening to El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco, I think Cafe Tacvba has reinforced its appeal as one of the most influential bands in the Latin Alternative scene.
Although there are a couple of tracks that are clearly marked by their Rock base, most of the songs on this album are defined by a psychedelic sound that is quite innovative. The Bottom Line: Cafe Tacvba's new album is remarkable., El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco is finally here to provide Latin Alternative fans with a refreshing musical experience. If you are looking for something 'outside of the box,' Cafe Tacvba's new album is your best shot right now. Five solid stars!” - Carlos Quintana, About.com: “Latin Music” – 10/22/12
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