La Milagrosa (The Miraculous) is a quartet from NYC featuring four
guys from Puerto Rico who moved to the big apple a few years ago. A little
reminder for those who are not familiar with North America geography:
Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island and an "unincorporated territory
of the United States", which means the residents are US citizens but they
can't vote to elect the US presidents or senators and representatives to
the U.S. Congress. Yes it's a weird and quite complex status and you
should check the
Wikipedia page dedicated to this matter
if you want to learn more about it.
Anyway the island was a Spanish colony for centuries before falling under
US domination so, as you hopefully know, people speak Spanish there and
naturally also sing in Spanish (even in Punk bands based in NYC). And just
to make it clear I don't understand shit of (almost) anything said or sung
in Spanish so I won't be able to write much about the lyrics but, as the
band explained in some interviews, some addressed themes are racism, "difficulties" in
Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico history linked to slavery and personal issues among others.
La Milagrosa released their first EP at the end of 2019 (it was then remastered and re-released in 2020) on Medio Pocillo Records, which happens to be run by Eduardo, the drummer. The cool art is by Amanda Belàez and is inspired by El genio del ingenio, a 1910 painting by Julio Tomás Martínez, which loosely translates to The Will of the Sugar Mill and is about slavery and the abuses perpetrated by plantation owners in Puerto Rico.
To be honest I had first only listened to the first version of the EP and
I really enjoyed the remastered version as I could feel that the sound
lacked the energy to really express the rage of the songs. Because yes
it's quite angry, the four guys play a kind of punk which doesn't fall
into a specific kind of subgenre but could be described as hardcore punk I
suppose. It's not USHC or Swedish hardcore or UK82 or whatever else, it's
straightforward, it's fast but not super fast, yes it's somewhere in
between a lot of things, it's very punk though and that's what matters in
the end I guess.
It's all in Spanish and the vocals sometimes reach a tone and frequencies
reminiscent of Martin Sorrondeguy's screams (you know the kind,
very shrill and piercing), even if Los Crudos and his other bands
play a lot faster than La Milagrosa so the comparison has therefore very obvious limits. I'm sure people more knowledgeable than myself in
hardcore in Spanish will draw more accurate comparisons though.
So this EP is quite cool but doesn't really stick out to be honest. I
mean there's nothing wrong with it but I can't help but feel that it
misses a more pronounced musical identity, something a little more catchy
and original in the construction of the songs to fall into the category of
bands I talk about to my imaginary friends.
Art by Robin based on a "Panic Attack" theme.
La Milagrosa is back on this beginning of 2022 with a 13-track
full length
on
Iron Lung Records.
There won't be any need for a remastering with Panico, the tracks
are powerful and it sounds (almost) as in-your-face as it gets in hardcore
punk. The four Puerto Ricans keep writing the same kind of straight
forward and unsurprising punk tracks like they did on their debut release
but I nevertheless have the feeling that the band has gained in
songwriting quality, the structures are a bit more varied, the tempo
changes are more assertive, in short that the band has improved with
age.
With only two tracks out of thirteen longer than two minutes (but all over one minute), Panico doesn't fall into the category of
ridiculously short and fast hardcore albums but on the contrary
got the "time and depth" of "more developed" punk songs (um I'm not
sure I'm being very clear, let's just say that for me, it leans more towards the "fast" punk side than the hardcore side). La Milagrosa don't give up on enjoyable mid-tempo parts either (like on Camaleon), which allow the brain to take a break from the pummelling drumming.
And the comparison to Los Crudos sounds even more accurate on Panico. Let me explain, to me the Crudos have always been the kind of band I like to listen to from time to time (especially when I'm with friends and we're doing something else) but I never remember which songs I listened to and after the third one I switch to something else because they all sound the same (there is a cruel lack of "variation of intensity" and "catchy musical identity" in Los Crudos). And that's not completely what I mean about Panico but there is this feeling that, despite the improvement in songwriting, it's all a bit similar in the average punk category in the end you know.
Don't get me wrong, this is a powerful hardcore punk album but I've been listening to punk music long enough to be a bit picky and it wouldn't be honest to not include all my thoughts in my reviews (which is by definition a highly subjective exercise).
In short, whether you love Crudos (or not) and whether you've already been convinced (or not) for a paragraph that I'm an idiot with no taste, do yourself a favor and listen to La Milagrosa!
