los fancy free

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Freeload: Los Fancy Free, "Beatle Suit & Purple Boot"

We're already huge fans of Mexico both as a country and a place where music happens (see: the Mexico City Rock piece in FADER 51, also: some of us FADER staffers are super proud second-gen Xicanas). But then when we hear shit like Mexico City's mega awesome Los Fancy Free pile bendy guitars on look-I'm-riding-a-moped vocals into a big breezyass racket—a racket that is psychedelically "groovy" but subtly so and not at all Austin Powers—we want to give our neighbors to the South a gigantic hug and invite them to our party where we will be serving silver Patron because we are classy like that and we want them to have a good time. GOD! SO AWESOME! - The Fader

Los Fancy Free is the most ferocious live band in all of Mexico City and I really wish they played in the States more often. Drummer
Carlos Icaza is a beast with sticks and frontman Martin Thulin is something of a psychedelic maniac with a microphone and dudes have
been banging it out in the city's many rock and roll spaces way before they were any to play in. They are pioneers. Their music is
jamming—and unfortunately—all too rare in the United States. So we dug up some new stuff that you won't find anywhere but in
Mexico. Well, until now.
- RCRD LBL

Los Fancy Free - Nevergreens Vol. 1
by Dan Worth
Mind-messing desert rock

"Perhaps the only thing you can be sure of is that if you found yourself hurtling along the open plains of the Midwest, your mind awash with mind-expanding drugs, you’d regret not having this to hand."
Hunter S. Thompson, author of the surreal Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, famously said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro", and when he died he had his ashes shot in to space as ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ played. Pretty weird.

Los Fancy Free, who originate from Mexico City, continue this tradition of desert-based madness with this concoction of songs, the first of a two part collection. Opening track ‘The Naïve Heat’ would make you feel ill if you were on a bad trip, the hazy Spanish guitar lines and hushed vocals evolving into a long sprawling guitar solo that evokes the desert-rock sound.

Then to really mess with your head they start singing songs in Spanish. ‘Ja Ja Ja’ is a catchy number with its bouncy, ragged choruses and it doesn’t suffer too much from the inaccessibility of the language. The experimentation running through the album is commendable but it doesn’t always work. While ‘Oranges of Swing’, a short instrumental track, captures something of the vibe, other tracks, such as the bizarrely titled ‘Beatles Suit & Orange Boots’ are too obtuse and seem more like organised noise than a fully-formed song.

But by now the weirdness has got you. ‘Eumerica’ is full of wind effects and eerie calls that seem to come out of nowhere and it’s central lyric of "I’m fed up / of living in Eumerica" really tests your minds ability to process everything coming at you. Its breakdown has a man talking through a loud hailer asking, ‘Do you remember the Cold War?’ with an added echo effect before it suddenly stops and a sinister piano fill plays out.

Then just when you’ve got a handle on this hypnotic series of tracks they throw ‘High Society’ at you, undeniably the best song here, with a traditional order and relatable segments. A chugging chord sequence matched with quirky, offbeat lyrics that break down into a fun and danceable chorus before segueing into a stoner guitar solo, then crashing back into the same chord sequence at the start. Phew.

Returning to normality it’s hard to know when this album would really be what you want to listen to. Perhaps the only thing you can be sure of is that if you found yourself hurtling along the open plains of the Midwest, your mind awash with mind-expanding drugs, you’d regret not having this to hand. Hunter S. Thompson would be proud.



- new-noise.com

Los Fancy Free
Jun 17, 2008 at 11:07 AM
written by vu
Where we last left off in my series of a Spanish Summer, Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada brought a mostly instrumental Spanish soundtrack and Natalia Clavier brought such a lovely Argentinian voice. With this entry, I am hoping to introduce you to the psychedelic 60s sounding Mexican pop music of Los Fancy Free. I like how their name actually sounds like a bastardized version of 'footloose and fancy free'.


Los Fancy Free - JAJAJA
Los Fancy Free

Nevergreens Vol 1, Los Fancy Free's third album, is only the first of a series of what singer Martin Thulin describes as a journey by train: "You leave the downtown station... travel though suburbs and industrial areas.. Suddenly you reach the countryside; open landscape... a forest, a lake... a village... the sea and then maybe a new city."

The second volume promised to be released later this year and will include a 10 minute version Dire Straits' first single, "Sultan of Swing".
Anyway, it seems that the band's primary fan base are in Mexico, but I think most of the songs on this new album are in English, they have more international appeal.
I thought "Beatle Suit & Purple Boots" was very catchy, but instrumentals like "Bona's Psychedelic Breakfast" seems to only serve as transitional arcs. As Thulin described this as a musical journey, I would have to agree. Destination "JAJAJA" is my favorite location, it sounds like a big cultural-clash party big city.
Check out the video for "JAJAJA", the audio is slightly different at the end when his head goes into the pot. It is directed by Volver:

VIDEO

Also, judging from the various live photographs of the band, they seem like a pretty wild band, especially Thulin, who seems to like to undress on stage. It's too bad I do not see any live concert listing as of this writing.
I couldn't find any listing for Nevergreens Vol 1 online, so I'm assuming it's in limited release. According to the band's label, siliconcarne.com.mx: "la primera mitad de 2008" (first half of 2008). You'll notice that Silicon Carne is also currently the home of my favorite Stereo Total[W♥M] in Mexico.
- wm

A psychedelic journey with Mexico’s finest exports…
Los Fancy Free probably aren’t are name you’re familiar with. Despite this being their third album, they’ve only had European releases outside of Britain. Which is a real shame as they bring to mind some of Britain’s finest musical reference points.

‘Fear’, for example, sounds like Orange Juice if they’d been around in the Sixties instead, whilst the upbeat ‘Beatle Suit & Purple Suit’ has hints of ‘Rowed Out’ by The Eyes or maybe the Kinks playing guitar like their lives depended on it. ‘Eumerica’ takes its swirling, bendy guitars straight from Syd Barrett, whilst the vocals bring to mind ‘Killing Moon’ by Echo and the Bunnymen.

That is not to say that Nevergreens Vol. 1 is simply an exercise in plagiarism however, more that it gives a firm nod to its influences whilst still treading its own path. There are a few nuances; ‘Overture’ sounds a bit gimmicky is an idea The Flaming Lips purvey better, whilst ‘Ja Ja Ja’, despite some intriguing guitar work, seems out of keeping with the tone of the album.

Nonetheless, ‘Nevergreens Vol. 1 is a hedonistic romp that surprises with its constant guitar and lyrical innovation and so is deserving of wider recognition.


By: Lewis Morton

- Subba Cultcha

Los Fancy Free
by Dan Worth
Enigmatic Mexican rockers will get under your skin

"There's a je ne sais quoi that might mean you find yourself returning for repeated listens, even if you’re not entirely sure why."

To call Los Fancy Free an enigma is an understatement. They’ve been around for many a year and released several albums yet they have no Wikipedia entry, but the lead singer, Martin Thulin does – surely a sign you’ve made it? Lead singer Thulin is also known as Menonita Rock and was born into a Scandinavian community called Nueva Escandinavia in Northern Mexico – how on earth did a Scandinavian community come to be in Mexico? Wikipedia had no answers.

Their music is then, perhaps unsurprisingly, something of an enigma too. Their latest release Nevergreens Vol.1 is a blend of many styles and certainly sounds as if it has come out of a strange part of South America. Thulin admits to being influenced by everything from punk to David Bowie and Depeche Mode and from the music you know he’s not pointlessly name-dropping.

But leave any preconceived ideas of genre labels at the proverbial door. To neatly categorise them within words such as ‘psychedelic’ or ‘rock’ is neither fair or accurate. Listen to the opening track of the new album, ‘The Naïve Heat’, and you can hear why. The same is true of album closer ‘High Society’. It’s a great track yet neither a good representation of their sound at large nor an easily definable piece of music anyway.

Nevergreens Vol.2 is set to feature a 10 minute version of Dire Straits’ ‘Sultan’s Of Swing’ – on first glance that sounds like it must be some mindless indulgence with overly long guitar solos but given the sounds covered on Nevergreens Vol.1 it’s fair to assume it could well be fantastic. Time will tell.

With many bands a quick listen immediately leads to "Oh they sound like X" or "They’re clearly influenced by Y", but with Los Fancy Free this is almost impossible. Whether or not you like it is a matter of taste but you’d be hard pressed to deny its innovation and it has a je ne sais quoi that might mean you find yourself returning for repeated listens, even if you’re not entirely sure why
- noise-net.com

Among the participants was Mexico's psychedelic-punk band Los Fancy Free, who brought the house down with their high-energy rock songs that made standing near the stage a dangerous affair, as fans jumped uncontrollably in response to vocalist/guitarist Martin Thulin's hijinks, which included getting off stage and joining fans on the floor – much to the dismay of those whose job was to keep everyone safe. - Miami New Times