Dynamo (Soda Stereo album)

Dynamo (pronounced [ˈdi.na.mo]) is the sixth studio album by Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo. It was first released in Argentina on 26 October 1992 by Sony Music Argentina.

Dynamo
Studio album by Soda Stereo
Released	October 26, 1992
Recorded	Buenos Aires, 1991
Genre	Shoegaze alternative rock
Length	56:27
Label	Sony Music Columbia
Producer	Gustavo Cerati, Zeta Bosio
Soda Stereo chronology
Rex Mix (1991) Dynamo (1992) Zona de Promesas (1993)
Singles from Dynamo
"Primavera 0" Released: 1992 "Luna roja" Released: 1992 "Ameba" Released: 1993 "En remolinos" Released: 1993

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Considered one of the most core examples of a shoegazing album (and Hispanic shoegaze's high point by critics and fans alike), this is a very modern album that might have been accepted in anglophone music, and was quite visionary for those years. The album also maintained the drastic change of musical style previously experienced in their 1990 album, Canción Animal. This album may also be considered one of the most mature and evolutionary deeds of the band.

A highly experimental record, the album failed to reach its predecessor's popularity due to many factors, including lack of support from the band's label. It also alienated many fans, who had a hard time trying to cope with the unexpected shift in the band's musical style. Nonetheless, a few songs received a fair amount of radio airplay, including "Primavera 0" and "Luna Roja".

The release of Dynamo prompted a nationwide tour, including a six night residency at Arena Obras Sanitarias, then known as the "Temple of Rock" by the local press. The band invited several up-and-coming bands from the alternative scene such as Babasónicos, Juana La Loca and Martes Menta to fill the support slots at those concerts, thus giving exposure to a scene that would become influential (and in some cases commercially successful) over the years. In this respect it can be argued that in spite of an apparent commercial failure (it went Double Platinum within a few weeks), Soda Stereo were never as influential on the development of new bands as in the Dynamo era. It also established the band as a sort of forefathers of the 90s alternative scene in Argentina, even when their role was mostly as propagandists of sorts.[2]

Background and recording

Following the release of Soda Stereo's critically acclaimed fifth studio album Canción animal in 1990, Soda was propelled to international recognition, particularly with their rock anthem "De música ligera", which received vast airplay across Argentina.[3] Shortly after the album's release, Soda embarked on an 81-show tour around Latin America and Spain, called Gira Animal.

In 1991, lead singer, guitarist and frontman Gustavo Cerati began a musical partnership with Daniel Melero of Argentine band Los Encargados, a longtime friend of Cerati's, previous collaborator of Soda Stereo's and lover of electronic music.[4] Cerati found the change in genre especially constructive for composing songs and began honing the art of sampling, buying an Akai MPC[4] and composing sample-based songs with Melero in Estudios Supersónico. This partnership would eventually culminate in the release of the Rex Mix EP (1991), as well as a Cerati-Melero collaboration, Colores santos, in 1992, both of which draw heavy sonic influence from electronic music, the Madchester scene in the United Kingdom, and neo-psychedelia.

Exasperated by their old material, Soda had already begun working on new music towards the tailend of the Gira animal tour, after a brief pause in touring. Cerati said, "We made the decision to distance ourselves a little, to do other things, to open our heads a little bit, to travel and to get together when it was right. That's how it was."[5] On top of Cerati's aforementioned influences coming into songwriting sessions, Soda also grew interested in alternative rock, impressed by the works of British shoegazing and dream pop bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ultra Vivid Scene, Sonic Youth, Ride, Primal Scream, Spiritualized, and Lush.[6][7] Immediately following the culmination of the tour in May of 1992 by way of six shows in Spain, Soda Stereo began work on a new album, tentatively titled Gol, but renamed Dynamo after Melero made a comment about old bicycles having dynamos.[8][5] Two of the three songs composed exclusively by Cerati, "En remolinos" and "Primavera 0", had allegedly already been written by the time the group returned to Buenos Aires.[5] According to Cerati, much of the album's material was composed in jams and rehearsals, with the audio recorded in stereo and saved onto DAT's.[5] Other songs, such as "Texturas", were based on old songs from the band's beginnings.[9][6] Eventually, Cerati states, "twenty-something" songs were written for the album.[5] Many of the rejects for Dynamo ended up on other albums; the song "Rombos", from Cerati's solo album "Amor Amarillo" (1993), was first written by Cerati for Dynamo, and documentary footage by Boy Olmi taken from the recording sessions shows Cerati playing the song to Bosio on his MPC.[10] Other songs, such as "Zona de promesas"[11], "Ángel eléctrico", and "Planeador", ended up on subsequent Soda projects.

Gustavo Cerati (pictured) performing with Soda Stereo in Mexico City, 1993.

Recording began in August 1992 in Estudios Supersónico in Buenos Aires, near Belgrano. Most of the lyrics were written in-studio, to the melodies.[12] Meticulous about the album's sound, Cerati wished to "deform" the album sonically by constructing shoegaze-reminiscent walls of sound, while keeping the vocals in the foreground and executing powerful choruses characteristic of Soda's "heroic" trademark sound.[13] In turn, he dominated the atmosphere of the studio vision-wise.[14] In keeping with the album's electronic theme, songs such as "Camaleón", "Sweet sahumerio", "Ameba", "Nuestra fe", and "Claroscuro" were built around loops, synthesisers, and samplers such as Cerati's MPC60. Cerati, Bosio, and Melero contributed extensively to the album's artistic production.[15] The recording sessions for the album took a notably experimental direction compared to past albums; for inspiration, the crew recorded raga rock track "Sweet sahumerio" by holding an impromptu yoga class in the studio with Cerati's personal yoga trainer[16], and for the first time, enlisted the help of a local Hindu music band for instrumentation, including tabla, tambura, and sitar.[15] Track 5, "Camaleón", was recorded in an unusual setup, with Cerati on bass guitar and Bosio on electric guitar (minus the solo at the end).[15] Recording for the album culminated the following month with the recording of fifth single "Claroscuro".[16]

Composition

Music

When compared to past albums, Dynamo could perhaps be the most extreme one [we've] ever made, on account of the fact that there are so many elements from past albums that we took to the extreme here: from the sonic "maps" to the destructuring of the songs; from deeming playing with a song's sonic elements as being more important than its chords, to changing the way we approach vocals in a song or, for example, placing a guitar in front of an amplifier and seeing what happens.

Gustavo Cerati[5], 1992

Dynamo showed a complete turnaround in the band's sound, headed towards a more alternative style. It is primarily a shoegaze album, while at the same time founded on neo-psychedelia, dream pop, noise rock, alternative dance and electronic music.

It is often compared to My Bloody Valentine's seminal album Loveless. Some critics refer to Dynamo as a kind of "hispanic Loveless". While both share multiple musical traits, Loveless was conceived in a culture that was experiencing a rise of alternative genres; Dynamo in turn, was released in the highly conservative Latin American music scene. Along Souvlaki by Slowdive and Nowhere by Ride, Dynamo is considered an essential part of the shoegaze movement.

Release

Dynamo was released in October 1992 in Latin America on cassette, compact disc, and vinyl. The Gira Dynamo began on 27 November 1992 with a presentation on the Argentine talk show Fax[17], and venue shows began in December 1992 in Buenos Aires.[17]

Legacy

While Dynamo was not particularly favored commercially upon its release, it is today considered a cult classic and was one of the first shoegazing albums by any Latin American artist. is considered the Hispanic shoegaze's maximum referent. Soda Stereo was a pioneer band in the wave of experimental alternative music within Latin America, in which Dynamo turned to be considered a benchmark and influential album for many musicians and bands in Latin rock, not just for the experimentation and influences that permeated throughout the record, but also because of the virtuosity, musical complexity and growth achieved by the band during the realization of this album.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Gustavo Cerati, except for "Toma la Ruta" by Cerati and Daniel Melero.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Secuencia Inicial" (Initial Sequence)	Cerati Bosio	3:27
2.	"Toma la Ruta" (Take the Route)	Cerati Bosio Melero	4:30
3.	"En Remolinos" (In Swirls)	Cerati	4:42
4.	"Primavera 0" (Spring 0)	Cerati	3:36
5.	"Camaleón" (Chameleon)	Cerati Bosio Melero	4:43
6.	"Luna Roja" (Red Moon)	Cerati Bosio	5:31
7.	"Sweet Sahumerio"	Cerati Bosio Alberti Melero	6:03
8.	"Ameba" (Amoeba)	Cerati Melero	4:16
9.	"Nuestra Fe" (Our Faith)	Cerati Melero	6:37
10.	"Claroscuro" (Chiaroscuro)	Cerati Bosio Melero	4:05
11.	"Fue" ([It] Was)	Cerati	3:52
12.	"Texturas" (Textures)	Cerati Bosio Alberti	4:45

Personnel

Soda Stereo

• Gustavo Cerati – lead vocals / guitars / MPC60 / keyboards / producer / programming
• Zeta Bosio – bass guitar / backing vocals / producer
• Charly Alberti – drums / percussion

Additional personnel

• Daniel Melero: sampler and keyboards, collaboration producer
• Tweety González: sampler
• Flavio Etcheto: trumpet
• Sanjay Bhadoriya: tabla (on "Sweet Sahumerio") and Padanth Voice (on "Camaleón")
• Eduardo Blacher: tambura (on "Sweet Sahumerio")
• Roberto Zuczer: sitar

References

1. Allmusic review
2. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r176493 Dynamo - Soda Stereo | AllMusic
3. Guzmán, Andrea (19 April 2019). "'De Música ligera' de Soda Stereo letra y acordes". Cultura Colectiva (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 June 2020.
4. Morris, Juan (2015). Cerati: La biografía definitiva [Cerati: The Definitive Biography] (in Spanish). Sudamericana. p. 87 (e-book). ISBN 9789500751353.
5. Aboitiz, Maitena (30 April 2014). Cerati en primera persona [Cerati in the First Person] (in Spanish). Ediciones Planeta. p. 35 (e-book). ISBN 9788466655972.
6. Soda Stereo (1992). "Los secretos de DYNAMO" [The Secrets of Dynamo] (magazine). El Musiquero (Interview) (in Spanish) (76). Interviewed by Daniel Curto & Claudio Kleiman. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
7. Morris, Juan (2015). Cerati: La biografía definitiva [Cerati: The Definitive Biography] (in Spanish). Sudamericana. p. 95 (e-book). ISBN 9789500751353.
8. Morris, Juan (2015). Cerati: La biografía definitiva [Cerati: The Definitive Biography] (in Spanish). Sudamericana. p. 95 (e-book). ISBN 9789500751353.
9. Fernández Bitar, Marcelo (2017). Soda Stereo: la biografía total [Soda Stereo: The Complete Biography] (in Spanish). Penguin Random House Editorial Group (Argentina). ISBN 9789500757706.
10. Boy Olmi (1992). Haciendo Dynamo [Making Dynamo] (Television production) (in Spanish). Argentina: Canal 13. Event occurs at 2:09. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
11. Boy Olmi (1992). Haciendo Dynamo [Making Dynamo] (Television production) (in Spanish). Argentina: Canal 13. Event occurs at 4:23. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
12. Una Parte de La Euforia [A Part of the Euphoria] (Documentary) (in Spanish). Argentina: Sony Music. 2004. Event occurs at 4:21. ASIN B0006IUDS0. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
13. Boy Olmi (1992). Haciendo Dynamo [Making Dynamo] (Television production) (in Spanish). Argentina: Canal 13. Event occurs at 1:51. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
14. Boy Olmi (1992). Haciendo Dynamo [Making Dynamo] (Television production) (in Spanish). Argentina: Canal 13. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
15. • Dynamo on Allmusic site
16. Noisey en Español (30 October 2017). "Todas las canciones de 'Dynamo' descritas por Gustavo Cerati" [All of the songs on 'Dynamo' described by Gustavo Cerati]. Vice.com. Vice. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
17. "Soda Stereo at Fax en Concierto, Buenos Aires, Argentina". Setlist.FM. Retrieved 17 June 2020.

External links

• Lyrics