El otro lado del cerro
Vertigo’s second album follows a story set in northern Mexico during the Revolution, from spaghetti-western jams to boleros, rancheras, and corridos.
Release date
Tracklist
- Mexican Context
- Sahuaros
- La Emboscada
- Skaddadle
- Cockfight
- Xibalba
- El Amuleto
- La Bandida
- El Paraguas
- El Pajarito
- La Luna
Emi’s liner notes
Emi on recording the albumThis album comes from my experience in a border band. I’ve never felt completely connected to the cultures around me. I lived in Guadalajara for a while and saw how people celebrated Independence Day, Día de Muertos, and the Mexican Revolution. When I came back to Tijuana, I realized we didn’t mark those dates the way people did there. The Fourth of July and Halloween felt distant, too. It made me think about how little I knew about my own country’s history. It took me probably ten years to care about things we’d been taught in fourth grade.
El otro lado del cerro takes the perspective of someone living in northern Mexico during the Revolution, when radio was just reaching the country. It tells the story of cowboys who come to work alongside Pancho Villa for money. In his search for power, Villa sells his soul in the hills and gets an amulet. The second side of the record, after Xibalba, is a collection of boleros, rancheras, and corridos that reflects the variety of sounds our country has to offer.
We had a lot of fun finding the sound of this record. On songs like Sahuaros and La Emboscada, Erick, Josué, and I gave ourselves complete freedom to record spaghetti-western jams with textures from prog and spoken word.
We ended up with a story running through the record without setting out to make one. Coming from Last Day On Earth, it was fun to make a collection of songs without worrying about whether each one connected to the next. I recommend listening with headphones when you have some time to yourself. I hope you enjoy it!