Cordero
Issue #27
En Este Momento (Bloodshot)
By Melissa Smith
Published: January 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
There’s something refreshing and noble about Brooklyn-based Cordero: Their fourth album, En Este Momento, manages to synthesize influences from Latin pop, surf guitar, and Boss Hog, all led by the band’s wildcard and namesake, singer-guitarist Ani Cordero.
On “Heart in Me,” Cordero channels All Over the Place-era Bangles as if they were raised on healthy doses of Carlos Gardel. Two tracks later, “Come on Dear” has Ani’s sexually charged pleading “Come on dear just hold me down / I’ve lost my fear of death” backed by drummer Chris Verene’s Gene Krupa-styled solos. “La Piedra” is an eerie and beautiful track, sparingly filled by Ani’s voice, classical guitar, bowed bass, and occasional tribal drumming — with scratches and skips, it could easily be mistaken for a 1930s Spanish-language field recording.
En Este Momento does have a subdued restraint that would undoubtedly be lifted in a live setting. Ani knows that while she’s cooing catchy Spanish melodies and leading her band through bridges built on trumpet and mariachi guitar solos, the rest of the room is feeling it too. Cordero’s plan seems to be making music that will get hipster Seven-clad asses shaking to rhythms they haven’t heard since skating to Miami Sound Machine’s “Samba” in suburban roller rinks, and with En Este Momento, they are well on their way.
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