hello special friends!

Juan Torres “Alma Llanera” hello everyone in fluxland! i (m s1ocki) am thrilled and privileged and honoured to be but a brief and surely insignificant element of this mighty cultural gatekeeper, which has brought so much joy to so many hearts. today i would like to share with you what may be one of my favourite songs ever!

i found this song on an old record left out in the trash with a bunch of other, not-so-good stuff, outside a weird & slightly confused-seeming local record, comic, book, and hipster novelty store. the artist is mexico’s juan torres (not to be confused with cuban musician juan pablo torres–i think), and the album was called, i think “juan torres y su organo melodico vol. 2”–though the volume number may be incorrect. as i was sifting through these discarded records one fine day in, i believe, 1999 or thereabouts (as the media beat its war drums and y2k hysteria was reaching a wild, fevered peak), this little gem popped out at me and nothing has been the same since.

“alma llanera” is a venezuelan folk song (the title means “soul of the plains.”) and it is really something special, especially in sr torres’s spirited organ arrangement–the opening bars alone are worth price of admission (in this case, totally free), and soon it explodes into a sparkling, syncopated (though this may not be the right word as i don’t know from musical terminology like at all) explosion of joy and shivery incredibly amazing incredibleness. i liked this song so much i used it to soundtrack a vaguely ambitious art film i made on super-8 (featuring guerilla footage of european modern dancers!–but i digress). i hope you love it as much as i do!