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Review: El Buho, Jam Jar – ‘Enchanting and euphoric folktronica’
Robin Perkins aka El Búho was born on the fringes of the Peak District, but his music is a homage to nature as a whole, to many musical legacies, and to the remarkable richness of Latin American culture.
In the artistic melting pot of Buenos Aires, Perkins became acquainted with the city’s blossoming ‘folktronica scene’. Later, he delved into the unique underground energy of Mexico City, where he lived for two years.
Now, El Búho sits pretty at the intersection of folkloric musical tradition (cumbia) and modern, electronic techniques. So — what are we listening to?
El Buho is considered downtempo but he ramps the BPM throughout the night to render the tracks eminently danceable
Many tracks start out ambient and ethereal, progressing to a rocksteady rhythm and then to dub, where they surge and flow with lovely layers. Deep bass is almost ever-present, but there’s plenty happening on the offbeat, from intricate percussion to flute interludes.
And then come the simmering vocals from Latin American artists; these glimpses at other lives — anecdotes or odes in sonorous Spanish — soon become the driving force of delightfully danceable tunes.
Check out Mirando El Fuego as a prime example of all this at play. Or Xica Xica, which was produced with Argentine frequent collaborator Barrio Lindo. Corazón de Rubi has more of the light, airy sensibility. That’s from his 2017 debut album Balance which broke new ground in mingling organic sound with electronica.
El Búho has built a seriously impressive back catalogue since his breakthrough EP a decade ago. Mañana Tepotzlan was arguably the lo-fi highlight on Cenotes, with shekere and guiro underpinning the otherworldly woodwind.
Ramas, the 2020 homage to cross-border collaboration, is stacked with absolute choons. Those chopped vocals in Nevar prompt a sense of spirituality you also get from the choral Manu on 2021’s Natura Sonora.
These are all original productions, but the set also has remixes aplenty with funky samples and faintly recognisable refrains. Without fail, delicious melodies appear from clusters of nature sounds.
The producer’s sound cannot be defined without feeling reductive, but it is certainly ‘enchanting, melodic and magnificent’
Combining whistles, waterfalls, and field recordings with full-blown Afro-Latin rhythms makes perfect sense given Perkins’ dual professions. He’s spent almost ten years working for Greenpeace all over the world, and his music bridges the gap between soundscapes and environmentalism.
If that’s a match made in heaven, perhaps El Búho’s biggest accomplishment is marrying calm, contemplative moments with inevitable euphoria. Hypnotic downturns become the most elated, bouncy electronic music I ever did hear.
Mind you, sticking El Búho’s music in any sort of tickbox would be an exercise in futility. Why do such a wild disservice to its brilliant richness?
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Calling it all downtempo electronica is reductive because El Búho seems to up the BPM steadily throughout the two-hour set. Calling it ‘cumbia’ is similarly problematic, because the sounds of nature transcend any one geography, and there’s plenty in here beyond Latin America (including a bhangra-esque banger). Even branding the whole shebang ‘folktronica’ seems to shun all the other influences in the mix.
Ultimately, it is what it is. And what is it? Enchanting, melodic and magnificent.
P.S. Word to the wise: if you see Electric Balam on a bill, go and hang out. These two supported El Búho and offered up fascinating, fully improvised ‘shamanic cumbia dub’ with complete aplomb. There was a conch, a ukulele, and a wonderful synthy bassline. All on their stage debut!
You wouldn’t expect anything less from The Jam Jar, would you now?
All images: Samuel Fletcher
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