JUST A FRIEND

Yes mom, she’s just a friend. Just someone I met in class when I was no more than twenty. Someone who had the deepest brown eyes that made those stereotyped butterflies flutter up into my lungs & out through my nose.

This was the first breath I took with her completely in mind.

Yes mom, she’s just a friend Just a girl who I got drunk with at a party and put my lips on in a back alley as a cigarette hung lazily from her fingers.

And if she would’ve pulled away I swore I would’ve ran home with tears in my lids, but she didn’t. She stayed ; We stayed.

Yes mom, she’s just a friend Just a human who dips her fries in her milkshake on our first date. And she swears that it’s good and the funny thing is I believe her. Because surely someone that beautiful could never tell me a lie, right? Yes mom, she’s just a friend Just a woman who had her hands in my hair last night mom. Just a person who was moaning my name last night mom. Just a pair of thighs I was in between last night mom.

Yes mom, she’s just a friend At least that’s how you will always know her. Just my friend.

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROSIE

MAKING TECH HOUSE ANDINO IN CHICAGO

Chicago is home to artists and musicians from all around the world whose exquisite music foundations converge effortlessly to become the sounds of the city. Caro Arroba is one of those musicians.

I admire and continue to appreciate the music created by womxn. Producers, for me, are #goals. That group of creatives is part of a large and diverse network of people doing great things in art, in music, in the community, and specifically, in Chicago. It is a pleasure to highlight people with roots in the Américas, like Caro Arroba.

After seeing recent maquinitas nuevas (new analog machines) made by Caro and posted on her social media, I reached out to ask her more. Caro is a producer. She creates enchanting electronic music with a unique take on techno with influences of Andean sounds and culture. This style of techno easily blends in to form part of a Chicago dance soundtrack. It exemplifies the diverse sounds happening in the city.

Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Caro has been an active participant in the local music community and has performed in different venues across Chicago, like Navy Pier as part of LatiNxt, The Whistler, etc.

Caro told me all about current music endeavors and what the month of June means to her.

(Translated from the original conversation en español).

pandemic? How’s your music and what’s up now? Tell me everything!

Well, look, the truth is that it was like space to reinvent a lot of things, for example, new concepts, new rhythms. Basically, I’m doing new things. I also released something with a Chilean label for New LatAm Beats from Ecuador. I released a track with a label from Los Angeles called MojoHeadz Records in 2020 just as the pandemic started. You know, people were and are releasing a lot of music. It has been a time to release new things, new songs, and give a little chance to the virtual side of things, and all of that.

During most of 2020 were you satisfied creatively? Yes, yes, I think so. I think that some of that time, during the pandemic, allowed for good ideas to take place, and like I mentioned, to take on some sort of reinvention. Because then you had to think about things virtually, how to prepare things for a virtual presentation and the live sets from your studio, and all that, right? So it was like starting something new because now you had to prepare not for an audience that was going to dance, but for an audience that was going to really listen to you. After all, they’re listening from home.

Have you been enjoying virtual presentations? Oh, yes! The truth is that I love them! Yes.

Caro goes on to explain the purchase of a new sound card for their phone so they could record their sets directly. Then we jump into a conversation about doing new things and she excitedly tells me about

How are you? How were things for you during the (CONTINUED...)

taking an ethnomusicology course.

“I bought a sound card and you record your sound directly to the phone because recording with the cell phone is lousy, you know? And I can also record and make videos, on my cell phone, and do that on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram with these cards.”

“I am back in school and going into a career in Classical and Popular Native Music of the Americas. It’s been super interesting. The course covers everything regarding the colonization of music in America, and well, basically talks about art, sacredness, and transcultural theory. Many things that one sometimes forgets when you are, say, in your creative processes. Well, I always had it in mind, to have your own identity and all that, but it is very interesting because it makes you realize many things. For example, we have an incredible wealth of music in Latin America that has not been recognized because everything we listen to is Eurocentric. All music that is not European becomes ethnomusicology, or it is simply left off the map, so nobody studies it anymore. But there have been many pioneers like Isabel Aretz, I don’t know if you know who Isabel Aretz is. She is an Argentinean who, in the ‘30s, created a whole ethnomusicological study of indigenous music from all over Latin America. She is a pioneer in recording.”

Caro is enthusiastic about Aretz, her pioneering ways in recording so many indigenous sounds and instruments, as well as her many travels around the world to capture all of it. “She (Aretz) tells stories of recording and going from Patagonia to the Chilean Andes and then the Andes of Ecuador and just everywhere, to so many different countries. She was recording so many sounds, it’s like an entire science because we have so many cultures with so much music yet to discover.”

Where can we start learning about these types of sounds?

Well, you can listen to some of it in projects like mine. And many record labels in Latin America are dedicated to disseminating the sounds of indigenous peoples, whether it’s electronic like I do it, or through symphonic orchestras. But like I said, watch the documentaries about Isabel Aretz because she was a pioneer in this.’

Tell me all about your machines!

Yes, mis maquinitas. I bought new modulars synths. They are analog in principle but in reality they are already digital. For example, in the 60s they were analog but now with technology they’ve become digital modules. Not all, not all, obviously, there are still analog machines, I have three analog synths but the rest are digital.

The sound... it’s like, it’s a super pure sound. I mean, it’s like, I don’t know how to explain it to you. See what happens is that the synthesizers are electric energy and some sounds are extracted from that electric energy. So what I’m doing is making a little bit of organic electric sounds like these. And also sampling Andean sounds, that’s why I’m saying that it’s a music with a sense that it is not only new but also dependent on technology. Mixing technology with something organic is something incredible.”

What does this month of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community mean to you?

Ah, well, that’s kind of completely my theme because I am part of and from this community. I think that inclusion does happen here in Chicago. But, in other parts, there is no inclusion for LGBTQ+ artists. It’s like everything is very segmented. In Chicago, though, there is inclusion. I like that because I feel part of something. And obviously, from the point of view that we all have rights, that’s something that should be done. We should always have inclusive spaces for queer people, for everyone.

In Ecuador, I also felt included because I got along with all of the people who are in this struggle. But in general, it was not so inclusive. If you wanted to play in other places it was not so inclusive and it was only all-in when it was an LGBTQ+ event. Here in Chicago, everything is inclusive. I like that a lot.

Let’s hope that the world continues to open up to our artists and other concepts. That it doesn’t continue to be just the heteropatriarchal standards that drive art. Because that is typical, you know how it is.

Finally, which one of your tracks should we hear?

“Pasillo,” on the LatAm Beats from Ecuador compilation. Basically it is an Ecuadorian pasillo as the name says but completely deconstructed. It has the essence of a pasillo because it has some traditional scales but it’s not traditional because it’s a fusion. I

deconstructed it with samples and the machines and very interesting sounds were produced. I also play a little bit of the typical pasillo guitar on the track and I added my voice.

On this track I try to put a spotlight on the vocals because I sing in Kichwa. I also include the postColumbian music of Ecuador, because the pasillo is post-Columbian. It is mestizo music.”

You can find “Pasillo” on New LatAm Beats from Ecuador: https://newlatambeats.bandcamp.com/ track/pasillo

You can also hear the track “You Drive Me” featured on MojoHeadz Records.

INTERVIEWED WRITTEN BY SANDRA TREVIÑO PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEX HERNANDEZ

FIND Caro Arroba

Visit Caro online at Instagram @caroarroba Facebook @carolina.arroba SoundCloud carolina arroba

NEW RELEASES

POISON BOYS

Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind | Released May 21, 2021 | New Album - ‘Don’t You Turn On Me’ - Releases Summer 2021 | Rock

MEAT WAVE

Tugboat | Released May 26, 2021 | New Album ‘Volanco Park’ Releases June 11, 2021 | Punk

DAMIANA

Sunken Lupines | Released May 2021 | New Album - ‘Vines’ - Releases July 16, 2021 | Ambient Experimental

JUNE PLAYLIST

HIDE

Interior Terror (Album) | Released May 28, 2021 | Do Not Bow Down (New Single) | Released May 28, 2021 | Industrial Noise Punk

PIXEL GRIP

Pursuit | Arena (Album) | Released May 21, 2021 | Dark Wave Minimal Techno

GLAD RAGS

U Say (New Single) | Released May 28, 2021 | Alternative Bedroom Synth Pop

GANSER

Look at the Sun (Remix Album) | Released May 7, 2021 | Alternative Art Rock

JAMIE BRANCH

twenty-three n me, jupiter redux (New Single) | FLY or DIE LIVE (Album) | Released May 21, 2021 | Experimental Folk Jazz

BODY MERRA

The Work is Slow (Album) | Released May 28, 2021 | Horse Flower Storm/Fabuloso (New Single) | Released May 28, 2021 | Experimental Body Music

JUNE PLAYLIST

NEAL FRANCIS

Put It In His Hands (Instrumental) | Changes (Album) | Released May 14, 2021 | Soul Rock

2MINUTE MINOR

My Side of the Story | Released May 14, 2021 | Hardcore Punk

FIRE TOOLZ

I Can’t Die (Album) | Shitting Into Gaia’s Heart | Released May 7, 2021 | Electronic Avant-Garde

D&E CHICAGO

Feel Happy Gospel (Remix) | Released May 7, 2021 | Afrobeat Nu Disco Gospel

LOCAL MOTIVE

How I Miss You Momma | Released May 9, 2021 | Electroacoustic

MELKBELLY

Prehistoric Worm (New Single) | Released May 7, 2021 | Noise Rock

JUNE PLAYLIST

SPEED BABES

dance until it’s over (New Single) | Yellow+ (Album) | Released March 19, 2021 | Garage Punk Rock

SUPERKNOVA

Goals (New Single) | Released April 30, 2021 | Queer Pop

REZN

Mirrored Mirage Dub (Album) | Released February 5, 2021 | Doom Drone Metal

MODEL STRANGER

Breaks My Heart | Released November 13, 2020 | Psychedelic Grunge Rock

AIRIEL

Bloom | Released September 4, 2020 | Shoegaze

IMPULSIVE HEARTS

Dearie | Released July 20, 2020 | Shoegaze Surf-pop

“DEARIE” by Impulsive Hearts is featured on Cavity Search Records 2020 compilation. Pressed on orange vinyl. CSR140, Various Artists - Cavity Search 2020.

All proceeds of “DEARIE” will be donated to Chicago’s Brave Space Alliance - the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. www.bravespacealliance.org

JUNE PLAYLIST

TWIN PEAKS

Any More Than You Want | Side A (Album) | Released July 3, 2020 | Americana Punk Rock

CHRIS GREEN QUARTET

Speak No Evil | Released February 1, 2019 | Jazz Funk Fusion

Chris Greene Quartet at SPACE in Evanston, IL | LOWER CAP EARLY SHOW | Doors: 6pm | Show: 7pm Buy tickets here

VARSITY

Runaway | Fine Forever (Album) | Released May 29, 2020 | Lo-Fi Indie Pop

THE MOSES GUN

Nicotine Refugee | Released March 9, 2019 | Afropunk Rock

FEATURED LOCAL LABEL

HAUSU MOUNTAIN RECORDS

Founded in Chicago by musicians and roommates Doug Kaplan (who records as MrDougDoug) and Max Allison (who records as Mukqs), this local label releases “everything from otherworldly synthesizer composition to frantic beat production in the IDM tradition to strains of free jazz infused with electronics alongside horns or drums – onward through any number of genre-bending mutations you might find in the “???” or “Avant/Noise” bin in your local record store.”

Recently featured on Bandcamp Daily - check out the article here

www.hausumountain.com

HMRC ARTISTS

BODY MERRA

Horse Flower/Storm Fabuloso | The Work Is Slow (Album) | Released May 28, 2021 | Experimental Body Music

DAMIANA

Sunken Lupine (Single) | Released May 2021 | Vines (Album) | Releases July 16, 2021 | Ambient Experimental

FIRE TOOLZ

Rainbow Bridge | Released May 8, 2020 | I Can’t Die (Album) | Released May 7, 2021 | Electronic Metal Avant-Garde

Art Mart Pride | ETHEL ALEGRIA Instagram @ethela_photo www.ethelalegria.com