Monsieur JOB “Música Para Mi Madre”

Slashing through the silence, filling both the left and right channels of a decent stereo system with a discordance too beautifully arranged to leave audiences feeling anything but seduced by the chaos, “Spinner – Remix” would have been enough to sell me on its parent record. Monsieur Job didn’t stop at this one song though – along with 24 additional works that comprise the tracklist of their new LP Música Para Mi Madre, the critically acclaimed Colombian beat makers’ latest release easily defines the surreal sounds of electronic music this summer and perhaps summarizes the best parts of the hybrid movement in the Americas at the moment. There’s been a lot of talk about what experimentalism means for this genre, but inside of roughly 100 minutes’ time, Monsieur Job provides the answer I and many others have been searching for. 

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Rhythm doesn’t just communicate tension in “Soul Slurp,” “Madrid 87,” “Varanasi,” “Thank You JESUS,” and “Uno Con El Mundo,” but instead facilitates a lot of soft urgency that provides the greatest climaxes in Música Para Mi Madre (particularly in the latter two songs). The grooves in this LP afford Monsieur Job quite the solid canvas with which to work, but I like that these players never sound wholly dependent on the percussive componentry to make a big, muscular statement with the music. “Changes” and “Collage” accomplish as much as the other tracks do, but with far less emphasis on the bottom end of the mix as “Dashat” does, for instance, and yet all three songs fit into the same aesthetical concept rather seamlessly. 

Even the melodic swell we encounter in “Another Casualty,” “Eduardo y Adelaida,” and “Irony” would seem to have a far more disciplined look than it would were a different group of musicians behind the controls for these tracks, and although there’s scarcely an instance in which Monsieur Job sound like they’re holding back from us sonically, they never sound all that intrigued by the notion of indulgence. “Da Funk,” “Kiss the Rain,” “Capri,” and “Red” are all fine examples of their using conservative compositional wits to accomplish something smashingly intuitive, and from the rough n’ tumble “The Guiding Light” to more elegant tunes like “Eme Jota,” the music always sounds smooth – almost cosmopolitan – in presentation and production quality. 

Charisma is an endlessly supplied commodity in Música Para Mi Madre, and no matter where you look and listen in its tracklist, you’re bound to find something ready to sweep you off your feet in no uncertain terms. Whether it’s the dragging bass of “The Life” or more aggressive synth play in the form of “Rapsodia,” the instrumental indulgences and compositional efficiencies in this record combine to make something constantly accessible and fearlessly original in Música Para Mi Madre, and if you’ve been following Monsieur Job closely over the past few years, I think you’re going to be especially pleased with what the experimental end of this disc has to offer. They’re still evolving and bring us along for what is quickly becoming the hottest artistic odyssey in or outside of Colombia. 

Michael Rand