How Columbia, Mo. band Maxito Lindo embraces the changing seasons with a new album
You can’t disassociate an album from the context in which you first heard it. Music and memory don’t work that way.
So an album like Maxito Lindo’s “Winter’s Wrought”, which bears such a title and hits the air on Friday – just days before the official dawn of spring – feels like both a chapped kiss to winter and a a move towards something better than dormancy. These seven songs often sound like coming alive, leaning into the light in the hope that everything will eventually blossom.
While an album can’t escape its first impression – not completely – it can prove robust, withstanding the scrutiny that comes with multiple rotations, achieving something like timelessness.
Colombian musician Max Garcia-Rubio, the mind and voice behind Maxito Lindo, makes each project a new expression of firm musical values. Garcia-Rubio and Co. unite strains of 1970s folk and psychedelia — and here, traces and undertones of funk — in new and enjoyable ways, ensuring a set like “Winter’s Wrought” survives the stay of spring. .
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The album begins with “Juniper Berries” and a roll of drums in soaring guitars. Garcia-Rubio’s vocal melody takes on a naturalistic tone, sometimes reproducing the in-breath and then out-breath rhythms. Stellar local musician Steph Foley creates a seal around the softly groovy sound with saxophone and flute.
Almost seamlessly, drummer Pete Hansen counts the band on the next track, “The Blanket,” which boasts a truly dreamy ’70s aesthetic. Foley’s flute provides vital impetus, and Garcia-Rubio punctuates nearly every lyrical phrase with quietly provocative reflections.
The song ends with a line that can be lonely and romantic – or apocalyptic – depending on your state of mind: “Watching TV / Fear of the people of this world”.
On “Row,” Hansen’s quivering drums predict resonant guitar figures from Garcia-Rubio and Jimmie Atchley. This time they meet their match on Foley’s trumpet and Thomas Sallings’ bass; the air has a certain whimsy in its gait and gallop.
“He Loves the Sun” turns the funk dial a bit louder, suggesting an enchanted summertime scene. This song and its successor, “Dishes”, boast some seriously crunchy guitars.
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“My Name is Max” takes on a calm form and a sense of movement, growing as it goes. Atchley and Garcia-Rubio once again prove they’re a well-matched pair of guitarists, as electric sounds thoughtfully interrupt and complement a steady acoustic rhythm.
Fourteen Minutes Closer “Sharon & Karen” unfolds slowly and beautifully; like a well-crafted novel, it never reveals too much at any one time.
“Winter’s Wrought” is nothing less than an expression of Garcia-Rubio’s laid-back yet deliberate outlook. It’s also a deeply collaborative ensemble and a welcome shift – in any season – from one lifestyle to the next.
Learn more about Maxito Lindo, and find the album as soon as it is released, on https://maxitolindo.bandcamp.com/
Aarik Danielsen is the Features and Culture Editor for Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731.