Album review: New project, Caramelo Haze dropped NOESTÁSAQUI last Friday

It pays to track great musicians and producers in town like Beto Martinez and John Spiece who are extremely adept at creating exceptional music in our estimation. These two cats have Grammys at home as members of Grupo Fantasma. They’ve since gone on to perform in nationally recognized acts, Brownout, Brown Sabbath and many other accomplished acts. They’ve got a new project called Caramelo Haze who dropped their debut album last Friday on Nacional Records. The record is called NOESTÁSAQUI. We’ll let the band tell you what it is…

Caramelo Haze’s is new album is… “Sonic futurism, hallucinatory escape, gut-wrenched yearning… “NOESTASAQUÍ” (you aren’t here)—the debut album by Caramelo Haze is all of these: a bold neon suite that glows in the lo-fi undertow of sunburst EQ sweeps and roasted 808s.”

The newly-formed all-star outfit featuring Beto Martínez, Alex Chavez, Victor “El Guámbito” Cruz, and John Speice is a collection of accomplished producers, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalists.  Martínez, Chavez, Cruz, and Speice have collaborated on stage and in the studio for years. Cruz fronts the great Colombian rock trio Nemegata based in Austin. Martinez produced their latest. He is a founder of Maku Sound System (NYC)

Naturally we’ve been following these bands whether its the cumbia-pysch-rock of Money Chicha or the Latin, soul and funk brilliance of Brownout. Caramelo Haze seems to represent a more developed production role for Beto Martinez. In fact, the record was recorded at his Leche House studio.

Spiece had more to say on Chavez, “Alex fronts a great band from Chicago called Dos Santos. They have an amazing current album. Beto produced their debut record. He has a collaboration with the great artist Quetzal coming out pretty soon as well. He’s also a tenured professor at Notre Dame. The dude is deep.”

More from the band: “With no expectations or pre-written material to speak of, they improvised their way through a sonic landscape where Afro-Colombian folklore met steamy South Texas soul, where psychedelic Americana blended with the soaring highland sounds of Central Mexico. The end result is the electro, neo-sōl speculative odyssey, “NOESTASAQUÍ” (you aren’t here)—recorded at Leche House Music.

From post-cumbia synth vamps to disco-inflected Caribbean psychedelia, the genius and versatility of these musicians shines on this release, as they embraced total creative freedom. No defined roles, no predetermined concepts, just a sense of adventure and uninhibited experimentation all wrapped up in the sun-baked offing of a caramelo haze”.

Speice added more on the genesis of the band, “We came together to make one song at the beginning of the pandemic for a content deal Leche House had just signed with Fatbeats (Brownout label) when no gigs were happening at all and a few days later had 10 songs and a record and a new band because the collaboration was so natural and unforced. we really collaborated on everything including mixing and production. We also knew an entirely Spanish full length had no real home at Fatbeats and were hopeful a label with some reach in that world like ideally Nacional would be interested. We played it for our friend David Lobel who manages Orquestra Akokan and others. He loved it and sent it to Tomas Cookman president of Nacional who dug it and immediately got back to us. Soon after, we signed the deal. It’s been wild to make a record and get signed to a great label like that without ever playing a show. That’s pretty much what the pandemic did though. It created a need for a new way of doing things.”

The first single is a great track called, “Window Seat” which begins with Cruz’s intricate percussion work joined by keyboards. According to Speice, “We all played a lot of different things on the record. I’ve even got some light guitar and keyboard duty on a few songs. The percussion in “Window Seat” is Victor not me. Victor is a master of Colombian percussion and plays nearly all the percussion you hear on the record.” Martinez comes in with this wicked guitar riff and the bass kicks in with Spanish lyrics that segue into a harmonized chorus that gels together until the song sounds like a killer Rock en Espagnol track from the early 90s. The tune is a great introduction to the band.

The second single was title track “Caramelo Haze” which featured keys with distorted guitar riffs. Then the lead vocals come in with the chorus sounding more like an intonation. The song continues to expand until it’s abrupt conclusion. Both songs are getting regular airplay on KUTX.

The just released third single is “Something About Goodbye” with guest vocalist, Amalia Mondragon’s English lyrics are a bit of a surprise at the end of a 10-track album that until that point, featured exclusively male vocals. Her mezzo-soprano range is ideal for the song that exudes a sultry island or beach vibe with the percussion-focused introduction blossoms into an expansive arrangement that allows Mondragon’s rather lovely voice to reside up front and center where she belongs. Meanwhile, these masterful musicians create a sonic blanket that wraps around the listener comfortably.

Catch the Caramelo Haze debut show July 27 at 310 ACL live with support from the Peligrosa DJs. Advanced tickets are available here.