Café Tacuba

“And being an artist, I think the most interesting characteristic of [rock en Español] is not that they sing in Spanish. … It just happens that this is sung in Spanish because we are Mexicans who speak in Spanish,” the group’s bassist told POLLSTAR. “I don’t know how people or artists from the United States … (would) like being considered in Mexico as rock en Ingles.”

In other words, Mexico’s Café Tacuba is stuck in the same situation as every other non-English-speaking band: the U.S. music market’s overly organized world of classifications, genres and titles. But whether the band is rock en Español, world music, Latin rock, Mexican psychedelia or whatever is beside the point. As fans and critics of the band already realize, there’s much more to Café Tacuba than a category.

Formed 10 years ago while the group’s four members – rounded out with vocalist Nru, guitarist Joselo Rangel and keyboardist/programmer Emmanuel del Real – were attending art school in Mexico City, Café Tacuba has developed a sound that is distinctly all its own. “We don’t call [our music] any name,” Quique said. “And that’s something we think is important for us, not to put boundaries or barriers on the experimentation we use.”

Café Tacuba’s members initially thought of creating the stereotypical FM radio rock act, denying any cultural musical influences such as Norteño, Cuban or traditional Mexican. However, Quique said, the group was truly born “when we realized we weren’t being honest with ourselves” by not incorporating those influences.

“Our work as musicians is to make the best music or the music that reflects [most accurately] what we live and feel and what we think we are; in our case, it’s being Mexicans from a particular generation, living in a particular city, having a vision and translating that vision into music.”

The synthesis of sounds and styles from modern music and the band’s Mexican heritage play a role in not only defining the band’s sound, but also making a cultural statement. For example, using a drum machine with the acoustic guitar is “something that goes against the rock stereotype and we like that,” Quique said. “And in a certain way, these contrasts made by programming and the acoustic instruments, it’s something that reflects our condition as Mexicans being in Mexico, a country that developed on the clash of two cultures.”

The band’s unique sound has been showcased on three albums released before this year – 1992’s self-titled debut, 1994’s Re and 1996’s Avalancha De Exitos – all of which are on Warner Bros. and have garnered massive critical acclaim. Those albums have earned the group two gold records in Mexico, with the debut selling more than 35,000 albums in its first two weeks.

Café Tacuba’s latest release – a two-disc effort titled Revés/YoSoy, which is actually two separate albums released under one package – furthers the band’s flair for experimentation with instruments, styles and arrangements. But making the album proved to be a challenge.

“We were kind of tired of what we were doing as musicians,” Quique said. “We had to reconsider our situation being a group and we didn’t have too much interest in the next step of Café Tacuba. So we decided to try to find a new way of getting another kind of inspiration.”

The band members decided to switch instruments and the result was the all-instrumental Revés (Backwards). The album features a varying collection of songs that, at times, could complement a symphony’s evening performance or an all-night rave. Yet, “there was some reluctance from the (record) company to release the record that didn’t have the chance to get airplay,” he said.

The flip side of the project is YoSoy (I Am) with its vocal tunes that are “introspective compositions,” Quique said. “People say that the elements that used to be in a lot of contrast in the beginning of our career, now it’s much more integrated in the sound of Café Tacuba.”

The past decade of hard work has rewarded the band with a loyal fanbase in Mexico as well as regions of South and Latin America. In the United States, where the group recently finished a monthlong tour of clubs and small theatres, its audience is gradually growing through live performances, college radio and word of mouth.

Touring the U.S. has always been an uplifting experience for the band because a majority of its audience is of Hispanic descent, Quique said. “This was something that was very interesting for all the groups in Mexico and in other places in South America, too, that you could go make a concert in Colombia or Chile or Argentina, or you could go to the United States and see people from all these places that have immigrated into the United States and that their only connection with their own countries is music,” he said.

“When you come to the United States, you feel a very warm audience expecting for you to bring them a piece of their own homes.”