The Chicharones - When Pigs Fly (Camobear)
3/5
By: Kevin Molloy
It's a goddamn awful name: apparently it means 'pork scratchings' in Spanish. From this initial shaky step the LP stumbles through a series of awful puns and references to pigs and derived foodstuffs (see the LP's title, and the sleeve's cartoon portrayal of 'Aporkalypse Now' - cultural indeed). Then there's the trip: a narrative introduction, featuring The Chicharones as the saviours of a village plagued by 'banditos'. In honesty, we're reaching for the eject button, but miraculously they don't fall flat on their faces. Soaring despite the pun, 'Pork Rind Discotheque' kicks in with a veritable tirade of old-skool rhymes and scratchings (maybe there's something to that name after all...).
The drum-loops are pretty thin, and as a hip hop duo 'Josh Martinez' and 'Sleep' don't offer anything vocally that you've not heard before (and probably a long time ago). What's keeping our attention is the shamelessly camped-up rhyme-busting. Suffice to sample the chorus of 'Surf Rock', perhaps? "The Chicharones are so scholastic / We make great songs and look fantastic / Analogue, metal-tape, wax or plastic / We focus the dope-ness from opus to classic". Yes, it's tacky... but something inside can't help but grin at the adopted arrogant posture, the slickly presented claim to brilliance - old-skool hop meeting inner-city-academy-pop.
The LP rolls out in erratic fashion. 'Bully bully' shows just how little the formula's changed, and it's a bit stale for it. Elsewhere the songs have got that touch of magic charts-dust, though: if they play their cards right the Black-Eyed Peas could have stiff, and far more appetizing competition. It'd be a shame to see them lost to snobbish derision and the pre-pubescent, but it would be an easy route to cash and fame with songs as slick as these.
Still, whilst they reference those moving and shaking within the genre (Mike Skinner gets a tribute in 'Fiesta'), the Chicharones themselves are in no danger of progress or evolution. 'Can't Find the Time' does approach sincerity, and makes a very close pass to soul-searching, but most of the LP is of the formulaic-but-fun vein. And what's wrong with that? Perhaps it is ten years out of date, but don't trust the packaging... it tastes just as good now as it ever did.
Artists in this article: The Chicharones
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