The Penquista Reggae Rock band Congo Map prepares the premiere of his debut album called Meli (number “4”, in Mapudungun), whose launch will be this Friday 10 March through its digital platforms.
The plate has eight themes -one of them unpublished, the homonym “Congo Map”, and also a dub- and it had been forging since the band had its origin, a few ago 8 a 9 years, although during the pandemic they recorded most of them.
“People who know us will know what they are listening to, reggae con harto mapudungun, champurria that's right, because we mix Chilean with Mapudungun. (We use) lots of southern words, putting a strong southern identity in our music and wanting that to reach everywhere so that our territory and the problems of our territory are made visible through our music.”, he raised Pablo Xampurria, Vocalist of the band, a Reggae Chalice.
Likewise, The singer stated that this album is edited as a story, so he recommended listening to it from beginning to end and explained that the content of his music is very political., seeking to make visible the social problems of the Biobío area.
“Those who don't know us are going to find themselves with an album full of politics, but from the point of view of the Mapuche and citizen territorial resistance and the people who are in favor of wetlands, against extractivism, against the overpopulation of real estate companies that kill wetlands in our region, that are legendary to us who grew up here, killing our environment for corporate good. They are going to find a very spicy album, well done though, with good arrangements, appealing a little to the Jamaican sound, con hartos riddims, con toasting, dancehall, traditional ska, dub, and if you listen to it straight away it is intended as a story”, stressed.
Like the name of the group itself, Just with the name this album shows its strong link with Mapuche culture, In addition, they use many cultural terms in the different songs..
“The concept we want to show on this album is Meli, why Four is an important number within the quimun or Mapuche wisdom. It has to do with the Meli Witran Mapu -the cardinal points: the north (senile), on (willi), It is (puel) and west (cowards)-. The culture It also has four parts and that is denoted as a whole, a universe of things: the seasons of the year, the schedule of the day, the cardinal points, the elements of the earth”, said the singer.
further, raised that “The album has a concept of speaking in Mapudungún, to recover Champurria as Chileans (mestizo), the Mapuche mix with Chilean, what history has left in our region, We also wanted to recover a little of that vision of life of the Mapuche culture or the Mapuche quimun”.
The birds on the cover
The cover of Meli shows four characteristic birds of the Biobío Region, which are also related to the concept of the album and the Mapuche worldview., along with also representing each of the members of the band.
“The kingfisher represents the sea, the chucao represents fire, the queltehue O wood yellow represents the earth and the fiofio, bird from which the name of our Biobío region arises due to the onomatopoeia of its song, how is a migrant bird represents the air, so each one represents an element, a force, our region and stories”, Paul said.
“Apart from that, each one represents one of us. For example, I Xampurria, the video also breaks new ground by having both groups, I am the queltehue. The guitarist, Zalo Orellana, is the chucao; the kingfisher is Julio Onate, the drummer; and the fiofío is Camilo Moncada, the bassist, that at this moment we are the 'plant' musicians’ from Congo Mapu and that we made the album”, added the vocalist about the illustration of the birds made by the Chiguayante artist Cuach Cuach and which featured the final design of the bassist, Camilo”, the singer emphasized.
This Friday 10 In March, the Meli album will be available on all of the group's digital platforms and there will also be physical copies that the label will distribute. Surpop Records.
Regarding the live presentation of this production, The band hopes to finalize that during the month of April, although at the moment there is no specific date.
