Esperanza by G.Rag y los Hermanos Patchekos

Esperanza, hope, is green. The cover of the now tenth album is also hopeful: the cover child Xaver plays the superhero and sticks his tongue out at us. The kids are always right anyway. We should all listen to them. Then there might be a hopeful future. Esperanza.

Recorded again in their own studio/rehearsal room "Herrliches Warngau" by band leader G.Rag himself and mixed with the help of Nico Sierig (Joashino), G.Rag y los Hermanos Patchekos go their way and, like Xaver, care little about the rest of the world.

What remains is the inimitable mixture of South- and Mesoamerican popular music, of folk, jazz, country, punk and whatever else is picked up along the way. Cultural admiration and respect for the roots are the band's top maxim. It's a sad and beautiful world.

The band also digs up its own roots with OK Cumbia, a piece originally by the band InPalumbia, which shook up the Munich HC scene in the early 90s with its mix of punk, prog and pop. And yes, four musicians of the band now play with G.Rag y los Hermanos Patchekos. And yes, because of InPalumbia there are gutfeeling records. The Patcheko version starts with a fanfare (Three trumpets + baritone sax), then swings up to drunken cumbia and confirms: Everything is OK!

Speaking of "Before." Life in Distance returns once again to the punk roots (and to the damn pandemic). A short stomper with zydeco accordion and surf guitar, which immediately turns into Distance Dub. As a psychedelic barrio jam with dub elements.

And because the label turned 30 this year, another root excavation: Gut Feeling, the eponymous song by Devo is lifted into the Patcheko universe with scrappy guitar and sharp horns. Oh, what's that? The original's punky suffix Slap your Mammy, Slap your Daddy wears the classic Latin silk suit here.

Marc's boogaloo takes the tempo out. Nu Yorica wakes up, the band still playing. Stoned, drunk. The stream of consciousness of their Brazilian cuica player won't let them stop. Ever.

Esperanza. Hope as a piece of music somewhere between Bohemian 2Step and Rocksteady plus relentlessly primitive surf guitar. Anyone who knows a genre pigeonhole for this, please let me know.

Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit are strolling through Munich in the summer of 1970. They wear bell-bottoms and colorful shirts. They are looking for Damo Suzuki. The bourgeois threaten to beat them up, more and more bums follow them. Trinchera, the Krautrock homage of the Patchekos, resounds loudly from some apartment in Schwabing.

And we stay briefly in 1970, because that's when the British singer-songwriter Bill Fay published the song Be not so Fearful, an appeal to overcome one's own fear. The fear you can hear singer DJErnesto in the case also. Fear of failing at this epochal song. But with the help of The Black Rider, he catches on. And it doesn't hurt that the Patchekos play this classic as a mambo. Yes, mental health is an issue.

Cumbia Yerba is a hit. A slow dragging cumbia in the Patcheko style with strumming banjo, chirping guiro and flat accordion. Brass fanfares and a duet with G.Rag and cuica king Willy Fuiza. It's all about marijuna and kitchen cabinets. Classic absurd G.Rag lyrics. Love it.

Preparing for the album's final chord is the Rock'n'Röll Dub, With psych guitars, clanging steel drum and looping clarinet, the jam flows into one of the Patchekos' favorite songs, So you wanna be a Rock'n'Roll Star, originally by The Byrds, offers a lot that meets open Patcheko ears. It is, according to G.Rag, a "Westcoast surf classic, the trumpet is played by Hugh Masekela and the Byrds sing the best anyway". Very successful! The Patchekos never wanted to be Rock'n'Roll stars. But if they still will be, that's OK too!

Patcheko music.

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