TAPABOKA’s very first single restores your faith in humanity, if only for a few minutes.
This is why we do this. By “we”, I mean us music obsessives, the true believers, the sifters of the mundane. Those who still stand on the artist side against the algorithmic oppressions of the Streaming Age.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a band you’ve barely even heard of drops a single so MASSIVE that it single handedly restores your faith in humanity, if only for a few minutes. You crack a smile and say: “Again” – like Morpheus training Neo in his digital dojo, fixing for a fight against The Matrix.
Now you are helping drive this unknown band’s Youtube/Spotify/Whatever, Inc. numbers up like life itself depended on it, because sometimes it does. You listen, you like, you share, you post, you pester your friends… and yes, you write some embarrassingly highfalutin shit like this.
Cause, see… YOU. NEED. TO. HEAR. THIS.
“El Rey” is TAPABOKA’s very first single and it’s astounding to hear how much they get right hot out of the gate. There’s that warbly bassline that beckons you into the song, at first slick and slimy, then drenched in a Scott Pilgrimesque “Sex Bob-Omb” fuzz.
“¡Soy el fokin rey! ¡Soy el puto rey!” declares frontwoman Analaura Morales – her snarl equal parts grit and gusto – daring you to just try and take away the keys to her kingdom.
With the band’s rhythm section (Victoria Nieves on bass; JD Fernández on drums) locked and loaded behind her, TAPABOKA sound like they know they are on the path to becoming Puerto Rico’s best band in… well, it’s been a while now.
By the time guitarist Sofía Capllonch steps up to the plate to deliver a fucking guitar solo in 2024 like they never went out of style decades ago, you are either with them or against. The king is dead, long live the king!
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