Rolling Stone has posted a video offering a glimpse at Gogol Bordello’s upcoming album, ‘Pura Vida Conspiracy’, recorded in December 2012 with producer Rick Rubin at Sonic Ranch, Texas.
‘Borders are scars on the face of the planet’, declares frontman Eugene Hütz, loyal to the same message dear to his thoughts and all over his lyrics, as this world vision with no borders is once again the message of this album. This think-globally guy has never been shy when it comes to spread his rebellious ideas, he was of course part of the Boycott Arizona movement, but his music has become more and more impregnated with Latin America wild rhythms and sounds, as he has been living in South America for the last past five years.
In an interview to Nuvo, he explained that ‘Pure Life Conspiracy’ focuses on the idea that ‘generally people are constantly obsessed and concerned with things that are going wrong’, whereas he thinks ‘it takes quite a bit more intelligence to see the things that are going right’… so the album ‘points to the positive force of human potential and what we as humans can do creatively, politically and spiritually.’
He also explained that the term ‘Malandrino’, the title of the first single of the album, fits him like a glove as it describes ‘a streetwise cat that gets around where he needs to go without using the official approved ways’.
These days Eugene Hütz finds inspiration in Latin America, Africa, Arabic and Eastern Europe hip hop (especially the Chilean one, who would have thought?), since he thinks ‘American hip hop is in deep trouble’: ‘it’s been looking for a new form for a decade and not finding shit’.
But over everything, he has become more and more interested to breed this new form of music, this hybridization between Latin America and Eastern Europe (Balkan) root bands, bands that still have a connection to the folkloric music, as he put it.
‘So all that Balkan-East European and Latin American cross pollination is very energizing. The main thing is that it has more energy than anything else really. It’s so rich in rhythms. I’m sorry, but American beat is just one form and that’s it – you’re done.’
Apparently, he got bored with the US.