Surf is up in the autumn (or something like that)
At this point of the year, the local surfers in Montevideo have to search desperately for good waves or good climate in the middle of a schizophrenic forecast to do their thing. I don´t know why this is the first thing that I thought when I started listening to “Hula-hula”, the first record from Maniquíes which, by the way, sounds like a bunch of guys that probably have nothing to do with riding waves.
Montevideo is a city with a little treasure of surf rock, mostly defended in the recent decades by The Supersónicos, local heroes of the emergent scene since the nineties. In the case of Maniquíes, that sound that evoke those guitars alla film by Tarantino (what a cliché, I know; I´m sorry, blame the flu) get a very different treatment, one more close to the lo fi sound with voices in a loser tone. Maybe more confessional and definitely with a texture based in the voice work that defines other local (and close) indie acts such as Carmen Sandiego or 3pecados -two of the most active bands nowadays- Hula-Hula by Maniquíes is a more than appropiate soundtrack to the cold temperatures in Montevideo, in a time when somedays, you can still walk by the beach and feel a little sun in your face. A good sound of autumn for this city.
You can hear Hula-Hula, by Maniquíes, at its full enjoyable freakyness, here.
