𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 - this week: Furgón - El Proyecto de Jorge Pendiente

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙁𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙤́𝙣 - 𝙀𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚 𝙅𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙋𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚

Charles speaks but one language…

Andiamo! Despite my blood being decidedly foreign (not meaning I am ridden with germs), I am English. I mean, I was born in England, and have been here all my life. That makes me English, at least in the modern way of viewing things. Right? Well my foreign ancestry takes me back to two other places in the world. My native heritage lies in Italy and Ireland. Or Ireland and Italy, so as not to offend. I believe I am still roughly half English, but it may be less. I am not about to pay a rather large fee for someone to analyse my blood to find out. I don’t care enough. I am who I am, and that is fine with me. England is my love, and so is the English language. But I also feel a huge warmth and fondness for pretty much anything to do with Italy. I also quite like Guinness, when the time is right. And U2. When the time is right. But predominantly it is England that wins my heart. Paddy's Day is universally known and celebrated. On Saturday it was St. George's Day, otherwise known as England Day. Did you know? Would you have known if Google hadn't told you? “England” and “English” are pretty much seen as dirty words here in London. I can’t think why. It saddens me. Everyone should be proud of their own nation. Almost everyone. Ooh! Contention! Joking, of course.

You all know by now that I like words and I like language. I like to use language to describe exactly what I mean, and I like to have fun with it. Fluency is vital in this regard. It is because of this that I am almost entirely monolingual. If I can’t express myself and be myself, then I would rather be mute. “Well shut up then!” - as if that’s ever going to happen… No, no. I will keep on spouting my thoughts and ramblings until I am forced to stop. But it will only ever be in English. My roots may be in Italy, but I can barely speak a word of Italian. I can speak a smattering of French, but nothing useful. I don’t know a jot of Spanish. Not even simple phrases like “¿Dónde está la estación más cercana?” (I had to look it up), because it’s not often I need to know the whereabouts of the nearest station in a Spanish speaking country… To me, language is not about “getting by”, it is about communication, flow, comprehension, charm, form, balance, elegance, knowledge, education and wit. To wit? To WOO! You see? That’s just the kind of nonsense I like in language. As for Irish… Well, what IS the top of the morning, in fact? The night? Or is it reversed and referring to the afternoon? Or perhaps middle-morn? Who knows. I can speak it, but I can’t FEEL it. Jokes aside, Gaelic baffles me. Can’t speak a word. It has the sound of Irish, but after just a few moments one realises one hasn’t understood a word. At least I THINK it was Gaelic… Jokes, jokes and more jokes. We must remember to laugh. But yes, I am very much NOT a natural linguist, despite being a user of language. I cannot just PICK UP a language like I might pick an instrument I have never played before. Okay, anyone can physically PICK UP an instrument. That’s not quite what I mean. One needs to pick it up in order to attempt to play it. I AM a natural musician, so this comes easily to me. Speaking foreign languages however, is another thing entirely. People often say music and language are very much linked, and that an arty soul can usually flow from language to language with little hardship. I disagree. Words, maybe. But a whole new SET of words, oh no. It’s like plonking me in a chemistry class. I just don’t understand. Or perhaps talking to me about computer coding. I simply have no idea.

Aside from politeness, I don’t see much point in knowing “Hello, how are you?”. They will reply that they are fine, and that will be that. I cannot go any further. Pointless. Not me at all. I look stupid and boring. Maybe you all think I’m stupid and boring, but I don’t want to FEEL stupid and boring. Anyway. The great thing about music is that no matter how alien the sound, we can listen and interpret-et-et it. Our minds don’t spasm and spit back “the number you have dialled has not been recognised, please try again later”. The music is simply THERE. Almost visually, at least for me. And so, when I come across a piece of music in a foreign language, although I am intrigued as to what the singer is singing about, I realise that half the time I don’t listen to the words even in English. So I tend to just think of the voice as being another instrument. A thoroughly organic and expressive instrument. Which it is. The greatest instrument in the world, in fact. And one that cannot be bought! Let us descend all the way to Argentina. One of many lands where Spanish is king.

Argentina, you say? But surely they speak Argentinian. Well they do. In the same way that North Americans speak "American". Speaking of North America, it is one of the major exporters of great music, alongside Britain and Canada. But lately there have been some heavy competitors. The Philippines for example, but most notably, Argentina. And THIS is why we are here today. It should be bloody hot as we are slowly coming into summer, but of course they have backwards seasons. The good old Southern Humphisphere and all that. I meet up with someone by the name of Jorge Pendiente. He refuses to show his face. He is rather peculiar and quiet, yet confident and standoffish. He gives little away about his personality. Boy with a toy? Bloke with a smoke? Chap with a cap? Dude with a snood? Guy with a tie? Gent with a tent? Bro with a mo’? Man with a van…? Whoever he is, he hiding behind something. I’ll go with man with a van. Or, un hombre con una furgón. And with the whisk of a cape, he is gone. We barely even had time to say “Hola, ¿cómo estás?”! This person insists on being the star of the show, yet never has the decency to stick around! Such arrogance, in my opinion. I guess his band will have to continue without him. I gather they are however very much used to this. Enter, El Proyecto de Jorge Pendiente.

It is maybe because of this permanent active role as the understudy, that the band has become the most incredibly talented bunch of musicians. The only quartet in the world with 3 members. Jorge doesn’t even bother to show up to rehearsals anymore, and frankly he is not missed. I don’t know why they let him take all credit. Despicable behaviour, really. Anyway! El Proyecto de Jorge Pendiente is a stunningly original trio (let’s called it that), full of enthusiasm and excitement. Their latest release is a brand new EP called Tiempos Eclécticos, translating as Eclectic Times. This is just about the perfect name for such an assortment of goodies. It is full of rock, prog, funk, hip-hop (sort of) and even reggae - all in just 6 songs! Furgón (Van) was my personal pick of the day. Due to what I’ve said earlier, I will not be going into the lyrics, because I can’t. But my WORD (as it were), I don’t need the words. The music is simply phenomenal! Even without the words, there is a good dollop of humour, that to me is slightly reminiscent of the 60s/70s Brazilian band, Os Mutantes (listen to their track Top Top, for an example). Back to El Proyecto dJP, led by singer and guitarist Lucas Pellegrini, we have Federico Busse on bass, and Matías Lombardo on drums and vocals. And WHAT a drummer!!! The amount of times recently that I have been blown away by drummers of bands in the New Artist Spotlight. Such a thrill! The whole song is impeccably mixed to perfectly compliment the immense power of these three musicians. As I often say, I don’t think there is a great deal of point in going into the music here, because my humble words simply cannot do it justice. No one’s can. That is the power of music. It has to be heard to be believed. It has to be heard to be felt. Music is a little like food in that respect. Our ears are like our tastebuds. All I can do is recommend a restaurant. The rest is up to you. But having begun this thrilling train ride, believe me, you won’t want to get off.

The last thing you’ll be asking is “¿Dónde está la estación más cercana?”

Listen to 𝙁𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙤́𝙣 on the 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 Spotify playlist HERE!

Listen to 𝙁𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙤́𝙣 on the 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 Apple Music playlist HERE!

Listen to 𝙏𝙞𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨 𝙀𝙘𝙡𝙚́𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙨 on Spotify HERE!

Listen to 𝙏𝙞𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨 𝙀𝙘𝙡𝙚́𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙨 on Apple Music HERE!

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