Puerto Rican duo go storming into the lead…
[Video][MySpace]
[7.60]
Ian Mathers: The back track makes me feel like I’m playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, I’m pretty sure one of the foreign guys just said John Travolta for no good reason (and I’m sure he just said “electromagnetos”) and that female chorus vocal is just ravishing. I’ve underrated Calle 13 before, but this is living up to everything I’d heard about them: funny, bracingly off-kilter and still killer pop.
[8]
Hazel Robinson: Err, is this reggaeton going 80s electro? I think it is. And more robots: “Hold me, touch me, break the circuitry” begs the chorus and alright, go on then. It sounds like an interesting remix more than an original, but I’m pretty much a sucker for anything that can fit the word “circuitry” into an inept rap in the middle eight.
[7]
Andrew Casillas: Another stunner from Latin music’s greatest rap act. Notice that I said “rap”, not reggaetón. Calle 13 long ago surpassed that derisive label, and one listen to their new music shows why. Riding an electro-throwback beat, lyricist Residente details an absurd dream (or is it?) of time-traveling back to the 1980s, where they run into a leisure suit-wearing John Travolta while he’s “spinning his dance moves” and dozens of people “dancing” the robot (or are they?). However, whatever the lyrics really mean is irrelevant, because you don’t have to be fluent in Spanish to really “get” this. Calle 13 are much more interested in moving your butt than making you think. This is rap music of the highest sort — exhilarating, adventurous, beyond profane, and knee-slapping hilarious.
[9]
Hillary Brown: If the song could only be half as good as the video, which is sort of like Almodovar meets “Shiny Happy People,” this would be phenomenal stuff. As-is, it’s not like you have to mute it, but it’s not great.
[4]
Martin Kavka: Somewhere, it is still 1983, people aren’t retro when they do the robot, and Jellybean Benitez is the arbiter of cultural taste. That place is “Electro Movimento,” and while parts of it are grating – does Residente really compare himself both to guacamole and arroz con frijoles? Can’t he just pick one dish? — when Afrobeta’s Cuci Amador sings the chorus, I float away in heaven, and miss Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam a little less. Note to cultural conservatives: Residente’s dancefloor is open to practitioners of bestiality and pedophilia. Call your congresspersons!
[10]
Additional Scores
Iain Mew: [9]
Dan MacRae: [9]
Dave Moore: [5]
Doug Robertson: [8]
Martin Skidmore: [7]