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Maff is a rock band from Santiago, Chile, formed in 2012. This is only their second release, after a self-titled debut LP in 2015. It shows a lot of depth and a real mastery of the new wave form.
The band consists of Ricardo Gomez (vocals, guitar, bass) and drummer Alberto Parot. At heart, they are a New Wave band. I would have listened to the heck out of this when i was in high school! Wait, i listened to it a lot this past year, when high school is just a blurry memory....
This retro music is all the rage these days, and i think that Maff are one of the better examples.
Act 2 begins the EP with a guitar slowly picking a chord, alone, swallowed by a ton of echo. Tapped drum comes in, and another guitar, fuzz overwhelming that second one. After a minute of hazy meandering, the song pops, the speed increasing and everything becoming louder and fuller in tone. This is a lovely shoegaze tune with the guitar in echoing layers that are everywhere and the percussion a thunderous roar. It gets nicely noisy on the choruses.
On Desfile a male voice comes, echoed and distant and en Espanol. This is a lovely song with the guitar in layers of distortion and the rhythm moving along nicely.
Hawaii starts with a funky bass riff, then the drummer comes in, cymbal happy. The song calms down after a bit and the voice is there, distant. This reminds me of the halfway point between The Pixies and A.R.Kane -- catchy funkiness and some spacey elements blending together. On the chorus, the guitar goes into overdrive, the drummer again pounds the cymbals, and there is some kind of odd clattering -- a xylophone, keyboard sample thereof, or something like that. This rocks hard.
Deserts Are Rainbows starts off with slow picked guitar, echoed drum thud, and some kind of keyboard loop. The whole song is delicate and slow, the guitar a whirr in the distance and the voice echoed and far away. This song is a slow, lethargic haze, and nicely done.
And finally we have Appear. Gomez sings in English over a toe-tappingly catchy beat. This sounds like it was a huge hit in 1987, something that you kind of remember ... it was in that movie, you know, it had that guy who later went on to be an action star... It has that feel to it, not replicating the past, but a lost relic from the era. Gomez even sings dramatically, as if suddenly Mr. Mister developed a pedal fetish... I like this a lot, but then again i am an 80s product, so my enjoyment of this might be different than those of you who did not have the privilege of living through the New Wave era yourself.
I really like this. Maff is doing some interesting things.
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