420, Reloj by Mau Gatiyo y Los Años Maravillosos

Introducing the next release in Names You Can Trust’s long-running collaboration with the prolific and symbiotic musical universe of Bogotá, Colombia. Mau Gatiyo y Los Años Maravillosos formed in 2021, arising from the very same fertile grounds of the Teusaquillo neighborhood that have spawned many records and musical mischievousness. At the heart of this experimental movement is what can only be described as Tropicanibalismo, where a deep hunger for the roots of Colombian tropical music are only satiated by dissecting it, consuming it and ultimately creating something new again as some kind of untraditional, unholy and yet referential form of musical sustenance.

Within this concept, there’s a clear lineage of inspired and visionary artists that have been featured throughout NYCT’s record catalog for the last 15 years that includes luminaries Frente Cumbiero, Meridian Brothers and Romperayo, and each of these artists’ tentacles have touched several parallel projects from their talented neighbors and friends, whether that is through production, playing, engineering or mixing, these collaborations have wholly contributed to this very fruitful and colorful scene that could only exist within Colombia’s capital, while also gaining notoriety in its sister city, New York.

Mau Gatiyo, a talented accordian player and vocalist, along with his group (translated as The Marvelous Years) is precisely one of these projects, and the group has found their calling in the echoes of the vallenatos and cumbias that once populated the nation’s airwaves throughout the 20th century. It’s a traditional format that has always lent itself to storytelling, whether it be anecdotes about daily life, or using one’s voice to raise uncomfortable questions in protest against the system. This is where Mau Gatiyo’s poetic, almost new wave timbre finds a lane of its own, straddling a 2020’s societal landscape under the guise of this old-time accordion music.

nyctrust.com