Music
Press
"Podría sonar exagerado, pero no lo es. Lo que se vivió el pasado 5 de octubre en el concierto gratuito organizado para el lanzamiento de El pozo, la nueva propuesta musical de Yarimir Cabán (Mima), fue una experiencia mística.
El evento inició a modo de procesión, con Mima siendo escoltada hacia las tablas por una comparsa constituida de varios familiares. Esto sirvió de preámbulo a una intervención teatral en la que la cantante construyó un pozo alusivo al nombre de su disco. Acto seguido, y como en un ritual, interpretó la totalidad de canciones que pueblan El pozo..." - Cruce - Cruce
“Esa noche el Teatro se llenó en su capacidad, tanto así que varias personas se quedaron fuera, pues se cerraron las puertas por falta de espacio. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las personas que estaban afuera seguramente se hubiesen conformado con ocupar el pasillo, las esquinas o el piso con tal de disfrutar la música de Mima y su nueva propuesta musical…” - Diálogo Digital - Diálogo Digital
“El lanzamiento oficial de la nueva producción discográfica de MIMA, lució una producción impecable en la que se destacaron el diseño escénico, la iluminación, los vestuarios y la dirección musical, que unió a Yarimir Cabán y a su principal colaborador Mark Underwood (DJ Nature) junto a más de una docena de músicos….” - PR Indie.com
- PR Indie
"Mima does a sort of Tropicalia thing, it's really great.
Spanish vibe, I think you'll really dig it." - Gilles Peterson (London, BBC Radio 1 )
- Gilles Peterson (London, BBC Radio 1 )
“A wonderful record, Mima genre hops beautifully while offering a consistent narrative that is all her own. Taking in Tom Ze-esque percussive flights of fancy, Crampsian stomp, liberal dashes of Brazilian Tropicalia, 'El Pozo' is both superbly accomplished and loosely rich.” - Rough Trade ( London )
"A really compelling set of trans-global tunes from Mima – a contemporary Puerto Rican singer, but one who works in an array of styles that break down many borders! There's a nicely mixed-up feel here – one that reminds us of the best recent French underground work, or some of the more creative moments from the Brazilian scene of the past few years – especially in the way the set mixes acoustic instrumentation with light electronic production – whispering melodies next to sharper edges, stepping out boldly at some points, but laying back with sweeter elements at others. The vocals are in Spanish, but produced with this very cool style that brings out their raspy edges –and in a way, there's almost a recurrence of a Tropicalia aesthetic to the album in some stretches."
- Dusty Groove Records (Chicago, IL )
Discography
El Pozo ( The Well ) LP
Spik Records
Produced by Mark Underwood (DJ Nature) and Yarimir Caban (MIMA) and mixed by Stuart Sikes (Cat Power and The White Stripes)
released 05 October 2011
MIMA (© 2005/2011) LP
Mami Records
Produced by Omar Silva and Yarimír Caban (MIMA)
released 05 July 2005
Photos
Bio
Unintimidated by her own success, Mima bravely embraces change as one of the defining features of her music, constantly exploring and reinterpreting her craft. A vanguard artist and pillar in the Puerto Rican alt-music scene, Mima represents both the struggle and viability of the independent musician in Puerto Rico. Over the past 6 years since the release of her first album she has sold out concerts both in and out of Puerto Rico , often producing every aspect of the event, from the look and feel of the promotional material to the intricacies of each musical arrangement.
Mima’s self-titled 2005 premier has crept into quite a few iTunes libraries since its release 6 years ago. Looking back now, it’s no suprise that her first record has reached so many ears. Her sound has a familiar quality, like something that’s been with you for years, but with a delivery so rare and honest that you know you’ve never heard anything like it before.
Alot has happened since that first musical groundbreaking 6 years ago. Now, after spending the better part of the last 2 years experimenting with new sounds and textures both live and in the studio, Mima offers forth a powerful new record, a poetic synthesis of Caribbean rhythms, North American soul, and southern psychedelia. Skillfully weaving the romanticism of traditional folk and Afro-Caribbean sounds with a DIY and post-punk approach, Mima offers up a dark and powerful work, one that takes the listener on a constantly changing journey, sometimes soothing, at others shockingly irreverent, as it navigates a new kind of Caribbean landscape. Recorded in a bedroom in a small coastal town near San Juan, and mixed in Texas by Stuart Sikes (Whites Stripes/Cat Power/Loretta Lynn), El Pozo is a supersonic road trip, timelessly rooted in Latin American tradition, combining magical storytelling with expert musicianship to create a shockingly expressive musical narrative.
ON STAGE
As a live show El Pozo follows along the path established by the album itself, beginning with Mima and the spectator arriving at a magical crossroads, as hypnotic rhythms and blissful melodies open the door to diverging pathways and unearthly offerings. A formal invitation to a journey, in the form of a musical happening. Here, El Pozo (The Well) is understood as both a wager, as illustrated in the title track, this hole might just prove to be a grave, and place of congregation, a frontier where we meet our fellow travelers and prepare to take to the road. As follows, once the ground has been broken, so has the division between the external world and the interior world, transporting contemporary characters and elements into an imaginary desert landscape. Using minimalist theatrical elements, intensely rhythmic drumming, improvisation, masked musicians, and Cabán's idiosyncratic vocalisms, El Pozo works on stage as kind of sublime musical odyssey leading the audience through explosive emotional fits and rants, disco dances with the dead (and the living), soulful heartbreak, comic surprise, and sweet revenge, as it barrels, and sometimes creeps down the road on this supersonic road-trip.
Links
