I’ve been trying to get around to posting about Miti Miti, and since Geko Jones (notably, while making reference to the duo) and others have been wondering aloud again about the practice of global gobbledicrunk, while Kevin’s translating salsa songs & whatnot, today seems as good a day as any.

Primero, I need to thank Raquel for urging me to give them a second listen, since I guess I must have encountered Miti Miti earlier this spring via Carolina. No gran sorpresa that these two querida colleagues would have gotten wind of the project: the “avant duo” has been blowing up the NYC cosmopolatino scene, headlining recently at a Nacotheque event. It’s a little telling that the act didn’t make an impression on me back when Caro wrote about them, but quizas that’s because all I saw/heard was a rather avant vid and, more to the point, b/c I didnt hear “miti miti in a house” or “nariz de coco” (both streaming here).

Those two songs definitely get me with their weird, suggestive, fun mix of electro, dancehall, merengue, new-wave postpunkish & whoknows whatelse. Raquel says she gets a kick out of their “weaving in of merengue and gagá and their hillarious/cryptic lyrics.” Me too! But while I definitely hear the merengue, I’m not too familiar with gagá, so I can’t pick that out as much (despite having done a little YouTubing for clues), though I do think I hear it in the galloping clave of “Darte” (which combines Fannypack-ish booty-kitsch w/ the apparently explicit sexuality of gagá pretty well). & I have to confess that mi español is, regrettably, not quite sharp enough to appreciate the lyrical nuance in realtime. (Ya no he vivido en un lugar donde se habla, tusabes?) So I’m exxxxxtra grateful to Raq for sending some transcription my way —

Yo quiero que este disco
De vuelta hacia la izquierda
No para oir al diablo
Ni tampoco a Juan Luis Guerra
Yo quiero que este disco
Te saque to’a la caspa
Con más pelo en la boca
Que el bigote de Zapata

Ni tampoco a Juan Luis Guerra! That kills me.