Los Bitchos/Talkie Talkie

An instrumental love letter to the post punk '80s

If someone had come to me with Los Bitchos' first album, Let the Festivities Begin! and told me that it was the work of a long forgotten '80s post punk outfit, I would have had no problem believing it, at least at first glance. Sure, the group's instrumental music was widely reported to be influenced by cumbria and its close Peruvian cousin chicha as well as guitarist Serra Petale's mother's collection of Anatolian rock records, but it's not as though they are passing themselves off as authentically anything other than Los Bitchos. And coming from different countries and musical scenes, the four members incorporate a lot of musical influences, past and present, to produce a sound that provides inspiration for the ears and fun for the feet. Augustina Ruiz, the band's synthesist and ketar player, comes from Uruguay and loves The Ramones. Bassist Josefine Johnson is from Sweden, and drummer Nic Crawshaw is from London, which is the group's base of operations. Johnson and Cranshaw one of the most solid rock rhythm sections in recent memory.

One of the difficulties of playing in a mostly instrumental band is that it is difficult to create music that is catchy, that explores different textures and grooves in each track, yet sounds recognizable—a brand, if you will. The members of Los Bitchos seem to have an innate ability to walk this line on their new album, Talkie Talkie, released at the end of August.

The lead off track, "Hi!" has a dance floor feel and tribal stomp to it that nonetheless reminds me of The Belle Stars with sharper arrangements. But of course, there's much more to it than that as guitar and keyboards provide a meltdown in the middle. "Talkie Talkie Charlie Charlie" has a funky feel straight out of Jerry Harrison's "Rev it Up" with plenty of crunchy guitar riffing.

The third track, "Don't Change" changes things up. It has an upbeat Sade vibe (if that's a thing) that dissolves into an international dance floor hit. It's the big dance sequence or the shopping montage, or whatever other high energy cinematic scene you want to insert. I predict a high chance of dance floor crowding if you play this at any event--wedding, birthday, whatever.

Everyone will hear their own reference points in these tracks, which makes sense, because the music is open to interpretation. Certain sounds, certain scales or rhythms will evoke different images, different emotions in different listeners. It's another one of the beauties of instrumental music. For me it's inescapably obvious that the intro to "Tango and Twirl" is inspired by the nascent sounds of New Order as they rose from the ashes of Joy Division. You may hear it, or maybe you won't (you do, right?) but it doesn't matter because the track kicks into gear as a kind of Turkish samba and never looks back.

Let the Festivities Begin! was produced by Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, and though it too was a musical smorgasbord of international influences and high-spirited fun, it wore its influences closer to the surface, and the cumbia-meets-Turkish rock-meets-surf guitar concept was fairly clear. Talkie Talkie turns the blender up to full-on juicing, rendering everything into a gorgeous Los Bitchos frozen drink, complete with party umbrella. Producer Oli Barton-Wood gives the group a clear sound that, trust me, is absolutely amazing blaring from your car's CD player. 

Drummer Nic Crawshaw says that working with Barton-Wood was a very comfortable collaboration: "It’s such an important thing to have someone who gets what you’re going for but also has their own ideas, as well. And to work with someone who’s just really invested and also fun to work with and you feel comfortable with and you feel like you can try stuff out and if it doesn’t work, that’s fine. Yeah, I think we were really lucky with Oli." (https://northerntransmissions.com/los-bitchos-keep-the-party-alive-with-talkie-talkie/)

Another element that makes Talkie Talkie extra special is that the band has played a lot of festivals and other live dates since the 2022 release of their debut, and that kind of time spent playing live together has cemented the group's sense of being a solid unit and made the songs that much stronger. Petale has said that the rehearsal time that the band spent on the new compositions made a huge difference in their level of confidence with the recording process and the studio itself: "We just knew that we ourselves had to be really, really tight playing the songs just as they were in the demo versions and maybe expecting some changes to pop-up. I think, as well, we’re all a lot more comfortable in the studio and we now know the process of how things will work.

Onstage, Los Bitchos remains firmly in the camp of having fun; their joy at playing the music they play is key to the enthusiasm the audience develops in the absence of a singer or lyrics to hang one's hat on. Perhaps that sense of fun makes it easier to take the group less seriously, but if you watch them play live you understand what a smoking groove band they really are. The fact that they wrap it in a pop sensibility and present themselves with a sense of humor and adventure is the icing on the cake.

Talkie Talkie is a love letter to the eighties, but one that succeeds by evoking the spirit and the inventiveness of post punk rock as well as the moments when nascent digital technology began to interact with the musical studio environment rather than merely imitating the sound. It's a rare album that maintains a party atmosphere throughout while presenting a constantly shifting, sonically interesting environment--the B-52s album Cosmic Thing comes to mind as another example. It also reminds me of Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock--an international dance party record, except Los Bitchos aren't sampling anything, they are just flat out performing the music that has influenced them.

I strongly recommend both Talkie Talkie and Let the Festivities Begin!

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