ABOUT THIS ITEM

Las Malas Amistades - ‘the bad influences’ - are from Bogota, in Colombia; 'Maleza' is their third album for Honest Jon’s. Lovingly assembled, it presents twenty-eight exquisite variations of suadade, in an acoustic, post-punk take on Tropicalismo - knockabout, impromptu, snapshot and sublime.

‘We worked on 'Maleza' for four years. We didn’t work on it all the time, though, but the songs kept streaming out and we just captured them whenever they happened to show their pointy little noses. If you read the lyrics for the songs in 'Maleza', you may think that these four years were especially eventful in the sentimental department. There is a lot of despair and anger and distrust, as if each one of us had looked for and found an especially ill-suited person to go out with so we could write a couple of sad songs about the whole experience.

‘But if you don’t read the lyrics and just listen to the music, both vocal and instrumental, you might get a different idea. It all sounds very peaceful and fragile, as if beneath that layer of anger there was always a melancholic yet hopeful stream. We worked slowly on this record. Composing songs together, sometimes playing them live in front of an audience a couple of times before recording them, other times capturing them just as they occurred to us. As always, we did it in Humberto’s house, in the middle of a very busy and chaotic neighbourhood, full of mechanics and car parts and broken motors. But you wouldn’t know it from the music, which sounds as peaceful and quiet as if it were recorded in some cave in the hills.

‘By the way, Maleza means unwanted weeds, the kind you get when you are trying your best to grow something edible but end up with a bunch of strange plants instead. But there is a beauty in those plants too, and maybe this record in a way is about that.’

1. Apocalíptica
2. Lamento
3. Vacío
4. Mina De Sal
5. Dolencias
6. Mala Suerte
7. Duquesa
8. Desecha
9. Volverte A Ver
10. La Sureñita Agradecida
11. Como Si Fuera
12. Todo
13. Pico De Botella
14. Sí Se Puede
15. El Otro Día
16. Hombre-Perro
17. Ya No Quiero
18. La Ultima Turista
19. Machu Picchu
20. Si Te Digo
21. Con Tu Forma
22. Insomnio
23. Luna
24. Sin Fin
25. Aguilondor
26. Tigre De Papel
27. Más Allá
28. Llévame