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El Rojo Premiere “Cactus Bloom” from El Diablo Rojo Album

el rojo (Photo by TuEm)

Recorded by Filippo ‘Phil Liar’ Buono of Karma Conspiracy Records at Monolith Recording Studio in February, El Rojo‘s second full-length, El Diablo Rojo was finished just ahead of the quarantine as a result of the country’s early-adopter/particularly-severe COVID-19 outbreak. As that has now spread to other parts of the Europe and the planet as a whole, it has usurped public consciousness in a way few things ever could. If a comet were on a course to smash into the planet, it’s hard to imagine it would be more of a topic of discussion.

Nonetheless, El Rojo — a double-guitar five-piece based in Morano Calabro in the southern part of the country, right on the bridge-of-the-foot part of the heeled boot that is the Italian peninsula — are pressing ahead with the release later this Spring. One assumes the lack of a precise release date also is related to the outbreak, since pressing, shipping and even packaging are all affected one way or another, but certainly that does nothing to make the music any less powerful. “Cactus Bloom” is the six-minute closer of El Diablo Rojo, and while its tonality is steeped in desert-worship warmth and it moves from a quiet wistfulness to a more aggressive stance by the time it’s finished, the weight of the message being delivered is significant and only grows more so as the volume intensifies later, to the point that vocalist Evo Borruso asks point blank, “Can you hear my rage?” Loud and clear, sir.

Perhaps El Rojo were thinking about issues of climate change when they put the song/album together, or at least some part of it, but no question the video for “Cactus Bloom” represents the current situation in Italy, and by that I mean the stark realities of living in social isolation, at physical remove from loved ones, bandmates, peers, fellow citizens, and so on. As the drone footage of empty landmarks shows, what should be brimming with tourists pissing off the Italian natives — hey, I’ve been one of those tourists, it’s the same everywhere — are empty spaces, looking mournful in sunlight or all the more like the ruins we’ll leave behind us when we’re gone and even the drones have stopped flying.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic will recede in the months to come. The virus may be with us for years, but the scale will change, doors will reopen to some degree, and a long recovery will begin. That would seem to make it all the more crucial to capture this fleeting moment, not only to preserve it for the future to learn from, but to remind ourselves of what it was to live through this time and how it brought into focus that which was most important to us as human beings. To love, to share.

Made in isolation, with band members filming themselves performing the track, here’s El Rojo‘s “Cactus Bloom.”

Please enjoy:

El Rojo, “Cactus Bloom” official video premiere

Cactus Bloom is the final track of our new concept album. The album itself is based on the tale of the struggle of a whole generation of youngsters coming from the southern part of Italy. The sound is elegant, nostalgic on purpose. The music plays along with lyrics full of melancholy, bitterness and rage, in which the protagonist speaks intimately of the hard times we all are living, of the sorrow for an uncertain future, of a context that seems to have given up on life.

Cactus Bloom is the metaphor of a difficult environment like the desert and how, in this ambient, the miracle of blossoming can happen. We must be able to understand that life always win: it’s engraved in our DNA.

The events hitting our life right now strengthen the message inside the tune and this is the reason that led us to tell this tale directly from our homes, where we are secluded at the moment. We share the restriction with all the people on the planet and so, along with this, we all share the uncertainty about the future.

So, during this time of isolation, should we reconsider our lives?

Shall we understand that everything that we were taking for granted could, in the beat of an eyelash, be gone?

We are asking ourselves these questions and, in the isolation of our own homes with no resources but our smartphones, we created this video along the notes of our new single, which is titled “Cactus Bloom”.

El Rojo is:
Evo Borruso (Vocals)
Fabrizio Vuerre (Guitar)
Fabrizio Miceli (Guitar)
Pasquale Carapella (Bass)
Antonio Rimolo (Drums)

El Rojo on Thee Facebooks

El Rojo on Instagram

El Rojo on Bandcamp

Karma Conspiracy Records on Thee Facebooks

Karma Conspiracy Records website

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