People have always understood themselves, and their relation to each other, through the lens of beasts. Just about every culture in some way attributes voices, personality traits, and motives to various members of the animal kingdom. The character assignments vary from region to region and from culture to culture, but every instance betrays a persistent pressure of the human mind to project itself on to other living beings, to use them as flesh-and-blood metaphor for understanding themselves. Pigs are dirty and lazy. Rats are petty and greedy. Mosquitos are vindictive and persistent. All of these traits are entirely and solely human, but are given to animals to bring them into the human world, to make sense of them, and ourselves in relationship to each other. Venizalian bassist Raúl Monsalve uses this convention and quirk of human psychology to anchor the themes of his latest album with the project Raúl Monsalve y los Forajidos. Bichos, a Venizialian term for vermin and trouble makers, is Monsalve's latest foray into the worlds of afrobeat, Latin jazz, and electronic dance music. The album folds these influences into a tight and easily digestible pocket that you can pretty much enjoy anywhere. Getting ready for your morning workout? Hit play on the spry pounce of "La Pulga" (ie The Flea) which leaps back and forth with the agility of a Ringling Brothers trained flea, a tiny ariel artist performing above a bubbling, conga drum beat, egging the little daredevil towards the next death-defying leap. Dreading your commute? Let the fluttery, patient beat of "La Mariposa"(ie The Butterfly) and it's future-funk, hardnosed drive, get you there in no time. Doing chores around the house? Let the industrious pluck and patter of "Bocón" and the elegant, synapse-priming, electro-fusion-funk of "Cafunga" help carry the burden of your work and give you the energy to power through and get back to what's most important in life: Breathing easy and enjoying yourself. This last task, that of actually grabbing hold of life and ringing some joy out of it, more so than any other, Bichos is calibrated and attuned to assist you with. Despite the world often going out of its way to tell you otherwise, you're not a roach, or a fly, or a rat, and you deserve the dignity and the pleasure owed to a member of the human race. Take a moment for yourself and to enjoy Raúl Monsalve y los Forajidos's Bichos this evening.
