‘Quemar las naves’ by Mohama Saz, out now

We are facing the fourth album by Mohama Saz: ‘Quemar las Naves’. Recorded by Carlos Díaz in his studio El Cortijo de Santa María de la Vega (Fuerza Nueva, Los Planetas, Melange, Soleá Morente, etc) who has masterfully recorded the characteristic sound of the band on a 24-track tape. The result is an album with a sound as organic as it is powerful. Released in Europe by Humo Internacional and in the US by Mock Records in December 2020.

Burn the ships… Is it a statement? Is it the realization of where we are going? Are we going to continue in this ruthless race? Is there no way back? Or is it all the way around? Some kind of battle cry against our own destiny? After listening to the album we will know it, or maybe not… This duality that the band presents us begins from the cover itself, a painting by Óscar Rey, featuring a snake, an ancient symbol that contains multiple interpretations, most of the time opposed.

Since Mohama Saz set out on their journey, they have done nothing but go their own way. They divested themselves from the Anglo-Saxon music world, the pop formula, the music of the victors… Using these remains as a vital and even political position. In their new album they continue to recreate a musical subconscious that ranges from the melodies of the East, to the sounds of the Mediterranean and Africa, with refrains that could be the pride of Los Chichos or Las Grecas, to songs that might be very well be played at the grandma’s house of El Pozo del tío Raimundo. They also travel to South America with nods to Víctor Jara, or to India with nods to Amancio D’Silva, or closer to their hometown, daring La Misa del Gallo in Toledo. But other of their musical passions also emerge, such as Krautrock or Anadolu Rock, recognizing motorik patterns by Neu!, analog synthesizers by Tangerine Dream and melodies by Ersen or Erkin Koray.

The formula remains the same: there are no rules. Their own emotion guides them to create melodies that come out mysteriously from an electric baglama saz spiced by clarinets and saxophones, on a powerful and hypnotic rhythmic base filled with percussions where the synthesizers of Íñigo Cabezafuego (who has just joined the band) float, giving a magical air to the whole album.

Mohama Saz rolls without erasing the grooves of the ideograms that gave rise to their being, that is why “Quemar las naves” goes forward like a Soviet tank, like a libertarian war column.