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| Mixed media by Camilo Restrepo |
GALLO LESTER: MUSIC REVIEW
by John Coulter
Gallo Lester is an unorthodox musician from the Dominican Republic. As an artist, his work is a full package: with costumes, animations and videos all cohesively supporting the music to create a memorable persona. He pioneers the absurd in a digital age.
The cracked out work is so alien it’s hard to look away. Like SuperJail, or a Heironymous Bosch painting, the constant bizarreness is addicting. The high energy infects the crowd at live shows. The music is inherently new: Avant-garde even. While the main ingredients blend metal and mambo, Gallo commands a full range of musical talents. He often fuses punk, merengue and other contrasting genres smoothly.
In ’No Quiero Fan’ a retro skater punk guitar riff is layered over Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Gallo Lester’s strange production borrows from industrial and chiptune. Gallo’s voice is gruffer than Christian Bale’s Batman and more metal than Metalman from Megaman II. His voice goes surprisingly well with guest backup vocalists.
‘La Comparsa’ features a rhythm similar to punta or dembow eerily mixed with Spanish rock. It’s catchy, and the song progresses through diverse movements all with a hyper dance beat. ’La Comparsa’s’ music video is like South Park but with more demons. Gallo’s aesthetic utilizes a kitsch style similar to Tim and Eric’s. Green screens are applied heavily in many of the videos, and rooster imagery is at a maximum.
Gallo Lester breaks stereotypes of rock and roll. With any luck the tracks will introduce American metal heads to diverse rhythms from the Caribbean.
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