Rock Star Journalist

My day job requires a healthy amount of time in front of computer, so I spend a good portion of my time in the office listening to music. New albums, day after day after day. It’s a great way to start to draw conclusions. Firstly, the new album from Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!, Todo Roto will likely sell far fewer copies than the newest release from King Khan and the Shrines, Idle No More.

And, I mean … it’s fucking great and all that Khan’s back, and the story behind why it’s been a six-year wait for a new album is absolutely fascinating. However, after the entirety of the Shrines’ output, Idle No More just seems like a letdown. It’s a better album than most, but for a recording from King Khan and the Shrines, it’s fucking dullsville.

Which is why the fact that Todo Roto will sell fewer copies is such a fucking shame. It’s a party platter of the first level. It’s entirely in Spanish. It’s dirty. Above all: it’s fun. There’s been a sense of reckless abandon on every previous Wau y Los Arrrghs!!! record, and it’s entirely present here.

While the band obviously takes their music seriously — translating Kinks lyrics, layering the sound with Farfisa and wicked licks, and the absolute intensity with which Juanito Wau delivers his croaking scream — there’s an element of laissez faire about the whole thing.

It’s not that you’ll notice flubbed notes or anything like that, but the band dances on the precipice of destruction. Todo Roto moves fast, and it moves hard. If you were dancing to it, you’d likely slip a disc. It’s intense, and to properly tear up the dancefloor without injury, you’ll need a rug-cutting professional to assist you. The way “Maldito Modales” switches from surf-rocking fuzz to organ-pounding hip-shaking and back again so swiftly, it astonishes.

Wau y Los Arrrghs!!! Todo Roto comes out on October 15, but you can pre-order it now on CD or LP from the Slovenly Records Bandcamp.