The title track of Los Cinco Cardones’ debut, El Quinto Cardón, sits just about at the album’s center. It’s a spellbinding ten minutes of desert-tinged jazz, keys lifting like a midnight wind, guitar echoing over open sand, bass rolling along on a high-speed night drive, sax soaring into a cloudless midnight. That is both the record’s heart and its pinnacle: the quartet performing not just a piece but a cohesive landscape, breathtaking and dreamlike. Here is where the band move with the tightest fit, everything glowing, everyone creating. It is outstanding.
I start my review five tracks in, not because “El Quinto Cardón” is representative of the rest of the album–no two of its tracks are alike enough for such a claim–but because I can’t stop listening to it in all its lengthy, evocative glory. Part of me thinks I would like an entire album of this song.
A wiser part of me, though, knows that what makes this piece so mesmerizing is that it arrives amid a very eclectic mix. Each of the eight tracks of El Quinto Cardón has its own feel, profoundly so. El Quinto Cardón opens with the straight-ahead grooves of “El Baile De Los Cardones”, a warm introduction to the group on which each member gets at least a moment in the spotlight: bandleader Sebastian Maschat on drums, Sebastian Dimarco on bass, Diego Sole on guitars, and Howard Clifton on sax and keys. “Afresque” picks up the pace with broad Afrobeat references, giving Clifton a chance to loosely emulate Fela with swinging brass.
The band skip into unexpected meters on “Clowns are the Real Magicians”, in which Clifton’s lilting keys are crucial in delivering on the whimsy promised in the title, as are subtle horn squeaks at the end. There’s an esoteric flair to “Ode to Being Weightless”, in which Clifton sings over retro, agile riffs. After monumental “El Quinto Cardón” is a trio of more fast-paced numbers: melodica-infused “Peyotito”, guitar-driven and progressive-tinged “Sheep of My Parrish”, and quirky Afrobeat-meets-fast march “Afrencera En Onze Típico”.
It’s hard to imagine getting bored at a Los Cinco Cardones gig. El Quinto Cardón is an impressive show of the group’s range, and their musicianship throughout is unquestionable. It’s a promising sampler, well-balanced between freedom and structure. The diversity of the band’s repertoire is intriguing, if sometimes hard to parse as a single record. Simply put, a lot is going on. Even so, the band hit marvelous heights, and there are moments here that are truly exhilarating and well worth the time spent listening.
Los Cinco Cardones don’t necessarily need to pare down their stylistic field, to be sure. There is much to be said for how wide a net is cast on El Quinto Cardón. Each member does exceptional work with complex meters and thoughtful melodies. Would they be better off sticking to a single mood for a single album? Maybe the focus would make it easier for me to stop listening to one track over and over.
Then again, maybe the group know better than to try to reuse textures they’ve already put to good use. Whatever their strategy, I look forward to the quartet’s next directions, however many there are and however far they go before making yet more turns.