Hybrid between electronic, house, rock and pop from Dominican producer Jonny Kmaleonic’s solo project Mamey Genius.
I have a confession to make… I am one of those who stays until the end of the movie to try to see the final credits, who loves to have the physical record to read the credits inside or behind the sleeve, who searches in Wikipedia the specific production details and through all of this I have acknowledged incredible collaborations, musicians that participate in records that we would not imagine.
I make this introduction before entering into the subject with the new project of Jonny Kmaleonic to highlight the participation of this Dominican musician not only in bands like Auro & Clemt and Tangowhiskyman among others, but also as an important part of the now disappeared pop group Los Violetas.
Jonny Kmaleonic starts off his 2017 with the first production of his solo project, Mamey Genius, where he uses his influences and his experiences to create a different style than the ones we had previously heard on his hands. Mamey Genius revives that hybrid between electronic, house, rock and pop.
Matias Aguayo, Hess is More, The Presets, Alejandro Paz, Discodeine, Rebolledo or any representative of labels like Cómeme or the first years of Modular where we are sure that the sound of Mamey Genius would fit perfectly come to mind.
When we refer to this new solo persona of Jonny we want to be understood with all the weight of the word alone, since all the voices, guitars, basses and keyboards were played by himself.
Modern Tapes is a production that swings from the Pop side with songs like “Girls” to more danceable moments in which the lyrics are the last thing we are interested in as “Discotec & Techno”; where we immerse ourselves in a kind of thick party with dark synthesizers.
In “Sotano” it is difficult to avoid the comparison to Matias Aguayo in that collaboration with Discodeine for the song “Singular”, definitively others of the great moments of this album. In “Friends” we have a hidden new wave gem, it could become an entire hymn.
Another surprise is “Paradise” both are complex songs, we could say that Jonny reminds us of Bowie and it is one of the songs where rock lines are remarkable.
Closing with “African Wave” the only track that does not contain vocals where the name of Daft Punk comes to mind for a few seconds but Mamey Genius tries to put his personal stamp making it more than a B-side subject which gives perfect closure.
Stream “Modern Tapes” LP on Bandcamp and Spotify.
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Mamey Genius on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Bandcamp.