Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Through the lush intro that greets us at the beginning of Pedrito Martinez’s new music video “Avenida Malecon,” the unlikely start of a celebration of Latin pop’s grandeur starts to form before our very ears. Melodies cascade from above, with Martinez’s energy already filling the speakers with raw charisma. Without warning, we’re suddenly barreling down a sonic highway towards the warmth of summer, finding our way into a world that this singer/songwriter will welcome us into with open arms. He sings without the slightest sense of regret hanging over his vocal. The beats are devoid of color, but the melody adorning them is about to change that in a big way.
Martinez continues in this introductory stanza, depicting vitality through every verse he’s putting out before his backing band. His voice is as hot as the sun’s surface but his harmonies make us feel like we’re basking in its redemptive rays; the tone of his voice suggests that he hasn’t a care in the world, and yet his focus is one of the most important elements to behold. The contemplative nature of the harmony that is taking shape between him and the backing band is getting hard to cage in at this point in the track, but then again, so is Martinez’s desire to break into a danceable groove a lot sooner than later.
“White waves crashin’ up against the wall / Casinos on the other side twenty stories tall / Following a green fifty-six Chevrolet / Top is down with a kissing couple on display / I wouldn’t have it any other way / I drive the Avenida every single sunny day,” Martinez sings, the spring in his step starting to infect the rhythm of the song with buoyancy. The bassline flirts with effervescence, and while the drums are dragging their heels, the strings are stoking a quick-burning flame within the beats and forcing everything within earshot to adopt a sense of urgency that will inevitably lead us to a blustery breakdown and the cathartic release of all this churning tension. The imagery is flashing before us faster than we can keep up with it, but it doesn’t matter at this point – anyone who appreciates solid Latin pop is already lost in the sonic ethers that Pedrito Martinez has so seamlessly transported us to in the last few minutes.
Music videos don’t often enough present the sort of dynamic that “Avenida Malecon” does, but to be fair, there’s nothing stock about the style of music that Pedrito Martinez and his band produce every time they hit the studio with a new idea queued up and ready to be experimented with. Having been blown away by the whole of what his scene has been putting out in the past year, I was very excited to see this track and its video, and I wasn’t disappointed with the finished product in the least. Pedrito Martinez is a one-of-a-kind artist in a very unique moment in Latin pop’s storied history, and this is one of his most cutting melodies so far.
Alisa Garza
