A Flor de Piel

The contribution and influence of Colombians and a new generation of Anglo-Colombians to the development of Latin music in the UK, as performers, bandleaders, teachers and entrepreneurs, has been tremendous, and not only in the field of popular music. However, this cultural contribution remains desperately underestimated.

Recent arrival María Mónica Gutiérrez makes a few nods to the music of her homeland, most clearly in the marimba-infused, Pacific coast styles of ‘Santa Mar’ and ‘Como una Rama’ where the dance music of the Caribbean is stripped of its rhythmic component to hang freely, draped in bright synth washes and bass grumblings, interspersed with oblique rising scale patterns. However, as a whole it cleaves to the field of somewhat experimental Spanish language electronic popular music, with a heavy emphasis on the suspension of time and the use of multiple types of distortion, notably on the very interesting ‘Tú’.

Montañera is clearly a project conceived and directed by a single mind. The positive side of this is that it makes for a formally and tonally coherent piece of work, while the downside is that it can lack the spark that collaboration can bring. It will be interesting to see what moves Gutiérrez makes in the future.