Alma Sangre Post “Dame Dolor” Video
The new Alma Sangre single “Dame Dolor” is — I’m pretty sure I read somewhere; yup, it was on Instagram — a herald for a new EP from the duo of Antonio Aguilar and Meg Castellanos, both of whom one might recognize from melodic heavy rockers All Souls and/or their maybe-kinda-reunited-well-it-was-a-couple-shows-who-knows-what-happens-next prior outfit Totimoshi. I don’t know the name of that release, but with Spanish guitar and lyrics, flamenco claps and dancing, and influences from their respective Mexican and Cuban heritages, Aguilar and Castellanos both depart from and reaffirm aspects of the outwardly heavier musical side and, with this single, not only tell a story, but delve into some psychedelic acoustic/electric guitar blend as well.
With regular contributor Fredo Ortiz (Los Lobos, Beastie Boys, etc.) adding drums and percussion as he has intermittently since circa-2016, Castellanos on cajon and live-dance and backing vocals, and Aguilar‘s introverted but passionate lead vocal, the song builds as it moves through its sub-four-minute runtime and twists deftly around its electric solo when it gets there, and it’s fascinating not only in the arrangement but also the way it brings together different cultural aspects to find individual expression. Aguilar‘s voice is well suited to melancholic longing, and for those of us not on the West Coast where they live — Alma Sangre played San Diego this past weekend, have gigged around Los Angeles and so on for years — the video gives a chance to take in some of the performance aspect that coincides and intertwines with the music itself. An essential, not separate, part of the aesthetic.
I don’t know the release date of the Alma Sangre EP, if it shares its title with “Dame Dolor” or is called something else, but after trickling out singles for years — the prior one, “Bruja,” came out in June and is Aguilar in standalone solo fashion — even an EP release would be significant. While I’m talking about things I don’t know, I don’t know the status of All Souls in the wake of their third album, 2022’s Alain Johannes-produced Ghosts Among Us (review here), which was brilliant and consistent with the rest of the Castellanos/Aguilar oeuvre in being underhyped, let alone Totimoshi‘s maybe-return, but if Alma Sangre is something to focus on while the other bands breathe as they maybe need to for a while, as a project it offers a richness of melody and texture that stands gorgeously, assertively on its own.
Credits follow below. Enjoy the video:
Alma Sangre, “Dame Dolor” official video
Dame Dolor is a meditation on child abuse. The perspective is from the abused child who absorbs the abusers pain and suffering in hopes that it will be remedied.
Song written and performed by Alma Sangre
Video by Meg Castellanos
Recorded at Total Annihilation Studios, Los Angeles.
Engineered by Eddie Rivas
Alma Sangre:
Antonio Aguilar – guitar, vocals, bass
Meg Castellanos – percussion, backing vocals
Fredo Ortiz – drums, percussion
