David Wingo was originally known as a film composer, for such little films as The Guatemalan Handshake. But a few years he ago he stepped out and decided to clear out a little spot for himself in the world of...well...really really good music. Need a little more to get a feel for it? Well, OK. I guess.
Ola Podrida's self-titled debut album from 2007 was met with thunderous applause, and lots of flattering descriptors. And now it's my turn to jump on that bandwagon, stick out my thumb, and roll away to wherever Ola Podrida wants to take me. From what I can tell, they want to take me to the very core of myself, and make me stay until I'm comfortable enough to crack out of my insecure candy coating and move along to their totally electrifying music.
Ola Podrida takes a genre that can be loosely called "alt-folk" (think Fleet Foxes or Beach House) and slaps it in the face to wake it up. To them, quiet doesn't mean losing complexity. There is no such thing as a "quiet" song, or an "intense" song. They are magnificent, questioning novellas; weaving stories out of every string and word that take a place in the arrangement. And no word or chord is misplaced.
Belly of the Lion, their month old release, sprawls over the twisting roads that connect all the feeling parts of us, so we feel the adrenaline pumping to our toes like when we see the person who sends us racing out of our bodies. And it doesn't chastise for those pulsing daydreams. It embraces all of our running and leaping thoughts, holds our hands, and tells us that those hopeful horizons make us who we are.
And it does that with rich, passionate vocals, and the music to match. There is no drone, no wall of noise, with Ola Podrida. They are not filling space on this album. The "la"s help the banjo roll on to its next destination, and the words tell us in a language we understand with our minds what the guitar is telling us in a language we instinctively feel.
Let yourself be swept away.
Donkey- Ola Podrida
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