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Los Fantasmas del Mariachi – The Business EP
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The Spanish name and mysterious absence of a biography anywhere on the band’s numerous websites makes it somewhat surprising that Los Fantasmas Del Mariachi’s sound is not pretentious in the slightest.
The Derbyshire four-piece make upbeat, accessible folk-tinged pop, with blues and rock cabaret influences shining through.
Multi-instrumentalist Josh Moses’ violin tomfoolery is at the heart of Los Fantasmas’ distinctly interesting sound, with impressive, looped string motifs forming the backdrop to the majority of The Business.
Opener ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’ is a catchy, memorable track, the violin riff offsetting the melody and identifying the tone as distinctly country and western.
The vocals can get slightly bland and overpowering in places, however the arrangements of the songs are strong, and the instrumental variation is certainly a hook, setting Los Fantasmas del Mariachi apart from the many guitar-heavy indie bands playing a similar style of music.
‘Cynical’ showcases a much more theatrical sound that will be extremely familiar to any teenage fans of Panic! at the Disco, as it sounds almost exactly like one of the songs from their first album. Particular praise must go to the brass section – Moses’ trumpet solos on this track are easily the best thing on the whole EP.
Featuring yet more frenzied violin, ‘Roots’ veers ever-so-slightly closer to emo territory, but just about remains on the right side of the line.
It is not particularly polished, however this fairly ramshackle first EP from a young band still searching for their sound shows plenty of potential for future greatness.
Words: Lizzie Palmer - Sloucher.org
Discography
with Peppermint Charlie:
Peppermint Charlie EP
Live @ Plug EP
with Los Fantasmas Del Mariachi:
Cynical - Single, received airplay at University of Liverpool Student Radio
The Business EP - streaming at http://soundcloud.com/losfantasmasdelmariachi
Solo:
Only One In Town - Single, received airplay at Radio Basingstoke, Covent Garden Radio, Acoustic-Spectrum Radio, UK Health Radio, Radio UK-International. streaming at http://soundcloud.com/sammonaghan/onlyoneintown
As Long As The World Is Round EP - streaming at http://soundcloud.com/sammonaghan
Sometimes - Single, received airplay on BBC Radio Devon, Radio Basingstoke, Covent Garden Radio, Acoustic-Spectrum Radio, UK Health Radio, Radio UK-International. streaming at http://soundcloud.com/sammonaghan/sometimes
Lock And Key LP - to be released May 2013
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Bio
Originally from Sheffield in the North of England, I started out in music by playing lead guitar and sharing vocal duties in a Ska band named Peppermint Charlie. After some moderate success on the local punk scene, the band parted ways and I began to write more acoustically driven songs and formed the band Los Fantasmas Del Mariachi. We recorded a DIY EP and then, due to the members of the band all heading off to different universities, called it quits. I moved down to London in September 2011 to attend Kingston University and started gigging acoustically all across the city. I have always maintained a strong DIY ethos, writing and performing everything myself and only bringing in external musicians when I feel a song calls for an instrument that I can't play.
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