Angel Peralta Trio

No, No Podemos

No, No Podemos is an homage to the complex sounds of progressive rock and jazz fusion from back in the day, but with an undeniable modern touch that is as elegant as it is choleric and nocturnal; it feels like the equivalent of watching a classic film noir in 4K. 

The first time I saw Angel Peralta I was truly blown away. Not because I had never heard anything like it before, but because I had never heard anything like it here (Tijuana) and it was cool -having been in a rock band- to have shared the bill with a jazz act. Ever since, I have been following Peralta’s work and ever since I have had to defend my position since I’m always met withe same response and reaction when I mention his name.

I do admit that a lot of times I have a hard time distinguishing between things that I just can’t do and actual talent but it is because I want to veer off from the numbing hypocrisy and mindless hate that I have been able to detect throughout the local scene; most of the comments that I have received regarding Peralta rarely have to do with the music at all, or if they do, they are tied to an unpleasant experience at a personal level. My stance has always been the same: it is okay not to like someone, but it is not okay to keep yourself from enjoying something solely because you’re not particularly fond of the person behind it, just as it is not okay to blindly praise someone’s work merely because of an existing emotional tie.

Even though I do consider myself a fan, I’ll be the first one to accept that Angel’s music is not perfect, but it would be unrealistic to have such expectations when I don’t even have them for my favorite -more consolidated- artists. The praise I bestow upon him has to do more with the fact that he operates on a spectrum just a little bit outside of the typical sound this city has come to breed lately. His style might not be completely off the grid, but he’s also not doing bland alternative rock just because he has access to instruments nor is he pretending to be inventing a new genre, like other projects that rely more on name/genre-dropping than on their music.

On his first LP as a trio, Angel Peralta pays homage to the complex sounds of progressive rock and jazz fusion from back in the day, but with an undeniable modern touch that is as elegant as it is choleric and nocturnal; it feels like the equivalent of watching a classic film noir in 4K. Although a caveat for these genres is the fact that -more than often- much of their grandeur hides behind each musician's indulgence as a virtuoso player, No Podemos does not feel like a mere display of musicianship for musicianship's sake; the instruments are busy keeping complex time signatures and meter changes but every technical prowess works to the songs' benefit. 

This turns out to be paradoxical, as the only track on No, No Podemos that truly comes close to display the sense of looseness the artist -according to the liner notes- aims to project, is "Halt! Stoj!". Yes, the bass and drums are extremely tight, but everything else surrounding them feels random and chaotic (plus, we just need to accept the fact that the groove they’ve got going on is pretty badass). The song devolves into a primordial version of itself in the most effortless way, showing that not everything needs to be overly complex. While the entire album is not short on moments like this, with its maniacal bursts of evil genius, it all mostly feels extremely calculated, without any room for spontaneity. The titular track has changes that don’t come off as playful as the artist might think, but at least the intention is sincere and the song is good as it is, with its slight nods to John Zorn’s work.

The trio more than makes up for this, though, and they do it by creating pieces with a big band feel, full of interesting textures that provide depth and show a focus on sound and timbre besides the traditional approach to music. The bass is as menacing as it is groovy, being reminiscent of Gong’s heaviest moments, and the distortion on the keyboards and guitar will evoke the feeling of listening to a baby Mahavishnu Orchestra or an electric-period Miles Davis still developing.

From "Halt!" to "Migrante Yugoslavo" the group have a perfect run of great songs that display different moods and styles: “Halt!” has free jazz leanings and “Everything in its Right Place” shows a more tempered approach (and its last minutes could be the foundation of an amazing original song) but the undisputed spot for MVP goes to “Because Music and Performing Does Not Make Sense”. This seems to be a solo piece by Peralta -who is credited as the sole key handler on the album- and it shows just how much growth the musician has experienced. His style has been criticized for being too histrionic and for never taking a rest, saturating his pieces, but it seems that he has learned the importance of contrast and restraint.

No other instrument is present and the serenity that emanates from this crystalline and ever-growing ostinato feels like finally finding a familiar face in a crowded space. This also represents one of the best use of samples within the album: David Byrne’s infamous self-interview in which he talks about Stop Making Sense (the Talking Heads concert movie) and the reason behind his -now iconic- big suit.

No Podemos keeps a steady momentum, but the sense of consistency that was being achieved by the wonderful instrumentals is brought down at the end by a just-decent piece with a less-than-decent vocal performance. Angel is no stranger to fusing hip-hop and jazz (at least in one occasion, he has tapped into his BBNG side and busted an amazing live cover of "Orange Juice") but in "Producto Bruto", The Huge Class' rapping is just dull and gets in the way of the music. Ironically enough, the combination doesn't lack chemistry and the end result is a pretty energetic track (mostly due to a super tight rhythm section) but it does not feel like a proper closer; it anticlimactically stops to give way to a sample that simply ends, and does so without the gravitas of Byrne’s closing statement on “Because Music…”.

Perhaps that should have been the final track. Perhaps ”Producto Bruto” should have been another instrumental. Perhaps these comments are a waste of time because the album is already done and this is how they decided to set it up. Besides, being a Tijuana-based project making an album that couldn’t be further away from the “whatever-trendy-band-algorithms-are-pushing-on-us” wannabe club, in which seven tracks out of eight are bangers, is quite the accomplishment in itself.