The Mexican cabaret punk-rock band, Descartes a Kant, returned for their first release in three years with A Tribute to Lou Reed, an EP of four tracks and the follow up to their previous album which came out in 2017.
The band from Mexico City have always aid heavy tribute to their inspirations and role models; it doesn’t even take going past the band’s name to find an homage to some of their exemplars.
The band’s vocalist, Sandrushka Petrova said about the EP, “es un momento para voltear hacia atrás y ver la nostalgia. Ha estado guardado en nuestro baúl por siete años, pero creemos que este es el momento para compartirlo.”
This EP was a project born seven years ago but that took several steps to find the light of day. But it’s so much more than just a tribute; it’s a thank you letter. The entire band acknowledged Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground’s importance since their early lives.
“Recuerdo que me prestaron un casete y cuando puse la canción en mis audífonos, lo primero que pensé es ‘¿qué es esto, acaso no sirve la cinta?’. Luego te clavas en las texturas y en las selecciones sencillas, pero eficaces a nivel rítmico y armónico. Es muy chingón”, said the band’s Dafne Carballo about the song “Heroine”.
The EP contains four songs: “Femme Fatale”, “After Hours”, “New York Telephone Conversation” which the band actually released those seven years ago, and “Perfect Day”.
“A veces me pregunto qué pasaría si pudiera convivir con artistas que ya están fallecidos. Me gusta profundizar en el qué hubiera sido si nosotros hubiéramos existido en esa época y en ese lugar”, Sandrushka said referencing the era in which The Velvet Underground were playing New York.
By Antonio Villaseñor-Baca