Gato Loco
New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Gato Loco could be the ultimate low frequency band: the only instrument that uses the upper registers is the guitar. Using oldtime Cuban music from the 1920s and 30s as their stepping-off point, they typically get a fat, low-end groove going and then have a lot of fun with the melody, waaaaay down there. - LucidCulture.com
Discography
"Malditos Besos" (self-released, 2008)
"Coconino" (self-released, 2009)
"Alamagoozlum" (Winter & Winter records, scheduled 2011 release)
Photos
Bio
Formed in 2006 by NYC native Stefan Zeniuk, the group takes its cues from scratchy pre-war Cuban records and vintage betty boop cartoons, while freely incorporating a modern schizoid mentality. Incorporating equal parts latin, rock, and jazz, Gato Loco is not genre music. It is tightly written, thrilling and confusing, killing boredom with thought, with passion, with power. Mysterious, yes. Ambiguous, no.
The group's unusual instrumentation of Tuba and Bass Saxophone, Acoustic Baritone Guitar & Upright Bass, creates a mysterious and compelling sonority that leaves the human ear little room for distraction. Strong, soaring melodies are interwoven seamlessly with lush and sensual harmonies.
The group takes fuses the repertoire from the great tradition of Cuban popular music with strong roots in american jazz and improvisation traditions.
There is an endless list of great composers from the Son and Danzon era, and we highlight such figures as Arsenio Rodriguez, Ignacio Pinero and Maria Teresa Vera, while also playing songs made popular by groups like Sexteto Habanero and Casino de la Playa.
"Gato Loco could be the ultimate low frequency band! They opened the show with the old Cuban standard Siboney. Gato Loco’s idiosyncratic version brought out every bit of warmth and attractiveness in the melody, and was a real treat." -- Lucid Culture
“Reflects the vibrations of New York” (Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux)
“Exotic and simultaneously Urban” (Le Monde, Paris)
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