"Auphmoy" is an advance Digital Single that contents three songs taken from "Afong (Mordió La Mano Del Amo)", the upcoming new album by PUTOCHINOMARICÓN that will be released on 21 April 2023
We will never get tired of saying it. There have been key artists throughout history, and they reached this status because of their ability to read the times they live in and deconstruct and process them, regurgitate them a…
"Auphmoy" is an advance Digital Single that contents three songs taken from "Afong (Mordió La Mano Del Amo)", the upcoming new album by PUTOCHINOMARICÓN that will be released on 21 April 2023
We will never get tired of saying it. There have been key artists throughout history, and they reached this status because of their ability to read the times they live in and deconstruct and process them, regurgitate them and create beauty, reflection, excitement and impact. Each new step that Chenta Tsai takes gives us the feeling of being two kilometers ahead. This is especially admirable in these fast, urgent, lightspeeding times, when it is difficult to settle down and get comfortable because once you do you realize you aren’t keeping up. And now PUTOCHINOMARICÓN is here with an immense, prodigious project, made up of four albums that are a part of a project called “SMHD (Arte Contenido)” (acronym for Seconds Minutes Hours Days).
The project comes from the conflict that currently exists between the definition of content creator and artist, the search for authenticity in a context of cloned identities. That’s where the concept of “Arte Contenido” (Content Art) comes from, which drives these four albums, and which somehow delves into that idea that Chenta is so focused on: What is identity? Is it something static and consistent? Can we have multiple identities? What does the idea of identity itself mean for an artist? Twenty-first century philosophy in the mind of a relentless, prolific, multidisciplinary creator, who not only sees the times we live in, with the accuracy of a surgeon, on a conceptual level, but also on an artistic level, and of course, musically.
Today we bring you “Auphmoy”, a Digital Single that works as an advance of the first of the albums, "Afong (Mordió La Mano Del Amo)", and which is part of the Minutes section within this “Arte Contenido” project. Auphmoy is the name that Afong Moy, the first known female Chinese immigrant to arrive to the United States in 1834, was registered under on the ship that took her to New York. Taken by the Carne brothers from Guangzhou, she was exhibited around the country as “The Chinese Lady”. It is a starting point we can use to reflect how essentialism about identity can lead to a parody of oneself, and the need that artists in the XXI century feel to develop all of their aspects, their facets, their I’s, in search of what will be the most easily digestible for the masses waiting for them on the other side of their screens.
But, as we were saying, there is more than just a strong philosophical and existential concept here. “Auphmoy” is a first taste of a groundbreaking musical concept. Because in a world where TikTok tries to convince us that we don’t need songs longer than 30 seconds, and a mixtape is an exercise of nostalgia dressed up as modernity, PUTOCHINOMARICÓN is giving us songs that are three at the same time, united, overlapping, interconnected. It is so interesting, inspired by podcasts but that in their hands take on multiple dimensions. Songs to listen to a thousand times, to analyze to the point of exasperation. And better yet, to dance to and sing along with, since they never lose their melodic spirit, as they are children of the times in which they were born.
We have three new compositions here. The first is “síndrómé dél ímpóstór / nó mérécé lá péná / párá nó dár péná”, an exercise in digicore with jungle roots, and that lays out the power of this new musical concept. Just look at how what starts off as self-questioning, the feeling of not being able to be in a certain place because of who you are, that famous and very present “imposter syndrome”, ultimately turns toward a necessary distancing from what creates those feelings of discrimination, and ends with a self-acknowledgment, the defining of oneself through one’s own paths. The song includes the collaboration of Berna Wang, an activist and poet, who adds her readings to this sound collage. “ántífá káwáíí / nárrátívá” veers more towards techno (although it continues to make jungle its main vehicle), with an explosive, powerful instrumental second part. It is a fierce song, with bile shooting out in each bit, beating and receding. Finally, the single closes with “mámá hé mátádó á ún sím”, a song that enters into soul and R&B territory, with echoes of hyperpop, where Chenta develops another trademark exercise: recognizing themself in a digital world and deconstructing themself through it.
Using resources and elements like the voice of a Spanish-speaking Chinese text-to-speech generator, Chinese instruments that are glitched beyond recognition, extreme frequency processing, and a collage album cover made by Chenta with photos of Neelam Khan Vela (another important name in this project), PUTOCHINOMARICÓN opens up a new space for investigation, for discovery, for thinking and feeling. “Auphmoy” is definitely a key reference, a before and after. Huge. Immeasurable. We love and adore all the I’s of Chenta Tsai.
