Trompe l'oeil / Malaka

Social networks in Cuba were a catalyst to plunge us (more) into globalization. The consequences of this process are many but I will restrict myself to one corresponding to the field of language: the use of neologisms. Thus, today we hear terms such as gaslighting, red flags and poser. And, although I do not like to serve as a mouthpiece for unnecessary anglicisms, I remember that when listening to Trampantojo of Malaka, I immediately qualified it as a mainstream.

Now, for many of us — and by we, I mean the millennial generation.— the term tells us little. The word is a compound concept in its language of origin, formed by main meaning principal and stream —current. The final translation that Google comes up with is conventional and that's where the idea comes from. But more than a concept, mainstream is a label that qualifies a commercial product.

Trampantojo (Di Benedetto Productions, 2022) is the artist's first album released in the middle of last year. At interview with OnCubaMalaka herself expressed that the phonogram fully represents her. On the occasion of this statement, it seems to me very pertinent to analyze the image of the artist and her work.

I landed on his Instagram profile by chance. Without listening to her music, I consumed the content. Overall, I came away with an alternative, unprejudiced and empowered image. Her unrestrainedness in addressing and exposing her sexuality while standing up for her right to respect (I love the hashtag she uses #RespetameAsere) put her a step far ahead of many artists on this Island. The girl had something to say. She managed to convince me, from there I went straight to YouTube to listen to the album. 

First I found Lengua (Tongue), the single that began to mark the change in his career. I was a bit dismayed that such a controversial and current message (the relativity of sexual behaviors associated with homosexuality) was musicalized with such obsolete formulas; however, I established a kind of analogy between the old school and the new ideas. It was a different optic. But after listening to the nine tracks that make up the album TrampantojoThe conclusion was that the artist did not know how to do anything else.

The proposal is a loose amalgamation of trapand rap, with less presence of the latter element, where Malaka (or its producer) takes beats of songs that, to top it off, were hits and reproduces them with two or three arrangements to avoid a copyright lawsuit. So the formula is as follows: 2000's reggaeton (with all those special effects of gunshots and sirens that I thought were outdated) and latin trap impregnated with modulations. low fidelity of the synthesizers. 

There are two marked aspects that I would highlight throughout the album: the baroque and the monotony. The first is given, in my opinion, by the abuse of the mid and low registers that saturate the audio channels. The second is self-explanatory. It's like beating Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and Tego Calderón together. Fresh there, only Malaka's voice could be more exploited but no, the vocal register in each song is flat and only gasps are heard at times in lyrical-melodic turns.    

Reggaeton at least tends to be catchy, but this is not the case. The choruses do not generate magnetism because of their length and their tiresome syllabic alliterations. On the other hand, you can't reset the disc and while you listen to Scissors, listeners Bellacoso. The canon of reggaeton verse + chorus + perreo is inviolable from the sixth to the ninth track. Of course, the organization of the album is very coherent at the musical level and the modulations lofi are well constructed. The bad taste in the mouth is mitigated by two salvageable songs: Powerful Mommy and Who want.

The first is the presenter of the album and it would have been a single successful. Its composition is marked by the trap in riffs on a sound base in the style of the Latin pop. And we come to a crucial point for me in this review: the 23 seconds of the song's presentation where, among other suggestive techniques, Malaka is compared to none other than Nathy Peluso. And so, the artist condemned her work by putting her in shoes she can't fill. Maybe in a couple of albums down the road she will manage to get rid of so much schematism and find her own style, or at least I hope so.

Who want is not on its own a very successful theme but within Trampantojo is the breath of air, the last coke in the desert or the holy grail. The ballad pop has an instrumentation and retouching lofi very fine.

I saved the speech for the end because I had high expectations with him. The Powerful Mommy The opening track of the album, fades away from song to song. Did it come out of spite or out of self-will? Miss Perritude not for sale but barks over the background known as the formula for success. Silenced I might as well have written it as a teenager.

The trompe l'oeil is an optical illusion that tricks perception and shows a vision that is not real. For Malaka this has one reading, for me another. Or do we have the same one and she knows that I know? There is a clear gap between the potential artist and her work. I believe that the performanceMalaka's image, image and even all the talent of Malaka, are still hidden under that surface.