Cuando Juega Uruguay (Jaime Roos) & Cielo De Un Solo Color (No Te Va Gustar) – Music Videos

Uruguay

Today Uruguay’s national soccer team beat Ghana in the most dramatic match I have ever seen in my life. This puts Uruguay in the semifinals of a FIFA World Cup for the first time in 40 years.

As a way of supporting a team that has made us all proud, I would like to share two of the most popular soccer-related songs that have ever been written and recorded by Uruguayan artists. The first is “Cuando Juega Uruguay” [When Uruguay Plays] by Jaime Roos. The other is “Cielo De Un Solo Color” [Single-colored Sky] by No Te Va Gustar. That song is not really about soccer, but it has become synonymous with the sport here.

Now we are squaring up against Holland on Tuesday. I frankly believe that after today’s show of stamina and guts everything is possible.

¡Vamos Uruguay, carajo!

Auto (Mateo Moreno) – Uruguayan Music

"Auto" Is The First Solo Album Issued By Former NTVG Member Mateo Moreno

"Auto" Is The First Solo Album Issued By Former NTVG Member Mateo Moreno

The debut of Mateo Moreno (the former bass player for No Te Va Gustar, and one of its founding members) hit the shelves in Uruguay in 2009. Mateo is actually a multi-instrumentalist, and he handled the majority of guitars (including charangos) and also some percussion on his first solo offering. He also arranged all woodwinds and strings.

I became interested enough to buy this album upon listening to its first single (the outstanding “Simple”) on the radio. The song is a true capsule of sensibility and sensitivity in which different facets of affection are studied as if they were in the same plane, concluding in each case that love is a simple manifestation in itself. You can try to overcomplicate it, and you can also try to make it stand even simpler than it is. It will be all to no avail.

“Simple” is the best cut of the whole disc, and I also have a lot of time for the unbridled folk of “Souvenir” and the moody “Princesa Oscura” [Dark Princess], a song that mixes electronic passages with autochthonous sections in a surprisingly spontaneous way. And those who long for Mateo’s own evolution of the sound of No Te Va Gustar can always check out “Anestesiandote” [Anesthetizing Yourself], the best exponent of rock & roll the disc has to offer. Continue reading

Uruguayan Music – General Introduction

A Great Still Of One Of Our Main Squares, "Plaza Independecia"

A Great Still Of One Of Our Main Squares, "Plaza Independecia"

Despite being Uruguayan and having lived my whole life in the capital of the country (Montevideo), I do not have that much of a thorough understanding of local bands. That is probably because I was always more interested in English music. That is, I was keener on anything that was English-related when I was younger: books, music, TV shows… Now I have broadened the specter considerably.

In a certain sense, I think that most people go through something similar when they are young: they sort of reject the music from the place they live in, however good it is. I am sure that young people in Rome dislike the local scene, I am sure that youngsters in Berlin look askance at their own local bands, I know that there are young people in Buenos Aires that look elsewhere for their musical kicks. It is completely natural. When we are a certain age, we are bored with the world that surrounds us. A foreign sound is always more motivating. It speaks of another way of living and a different sense of freedom. That is invaluable when we are young and we feel that the world constricts us. Continue reading