I wanted to post this not to shame these people for having criticisms of my album, but to post a public response to their comments in case they ever come up again. Thank you for reading.
Person #1
My son introduced me to this album and I wanted to show my gratitude to him by publishing a review. However, I am saddened by the fact that my review will not be completely positive. This is a shame as the heart is there in the title.
I am an immigrant of Latin America myself. I grew up for the first 19 years of my life in Pa Ceiba, Honduras. Because of this, I am very fond of my country, and by extension fond of Latin Music. I take it you are also very tied to your upbringing, so I am writing this as one Latino to another. I am disappointed in this album. You'd think that an album so rich in culture would portray it accurately, but listening to this makes me sad because it feels like an impersonation of my upbringing. Additionally, this album lacks basic rhythms and features that most older Latin American music has (and most of the lyrics are out of time, making it hard to listen to), which is fine if you want to have a newer take on things, but your lyrics are describing a world that is very far in the past. I will say, though, it is produced nicely. I wish the vocals weren't as sharp as they are, and if they could be heard over the rest, however I understand how hard producing is and am not making this my sole argument.
Overall, I think this album is a hearty attempt at paying homage to Honduran tales and music, but it feels lost in translation, if that makes sense. I hope you continue your journey with music and hope that God be beside you.
Reply:
Hi,
This is Monty Cime. I appreciate you listening to my album & showing your gratitude to your son by publishing a review of my project, which he recommended to you. If you get the opportunity, please thank him as well for me. As you have addressed your review to me personally, I feel obliged to respond as the artist behind the project you reviewed as well as a person who is also deeply passionate about Latin America and its musical traditions. Your words have stuck in my mind--I think your comments on the vocal/overall production/mixing and that the jagged nature of the compositions/rhythms--you mention the vocals being off-beat, but it extends beyond
this--are valid and I understand how this, despite being done deliberately, simply will not and cannot appeal to everyone. However, I am confused by your implications that our rich culture is portrayed inaccurately, that I am impersonating your upbringing, and that my album lacks quintessential features of older LatAm music (what features? what music?) and rhythms (what rhythms? in what style?). I would love to get your extended thoughts on the album; the review feels very disjointed and hardly focuses on the content of the album, as though you had initially written more and trimmed it down to three paragraphs.
The album is just as much an autobiography as it is a historical retrospective, a call to action, and a contemporary analysis of the geopolitics of our region--that is to say, the album is just as
much about me as it is about history. I say this because while you caught on correctly to how the album is partially an homage to Honduran tales and music (My family is also from La Ceiba! We were actually one of the founding families of the city), your comment about how I'm describing a world long-past warrants some elaboration (what do you mean? why does it matter? why contrast the style of vocals with the topic? is it really long-past if i'm constantly referring to the present and future when drawing from historical events?)
Why are you disappointed in the album? Is it for any of the reasons listed above? I don't know how else to read your disappointment because of your brevity, and while I do want to be considerate of feedback that is critical and/or constructive of my work, my final question is to ask if you had considered my intent in all of this; one of the biggest themes that runs throughout the album is the frustration of being an artist and having people critique your work using superfluous and uncritical analytical measurements, and I worry that that might just be happening here. I say this with nothing but love Tio: this album isn't about your upbringing & it is not attempting to impersonate your upbringing, nor is it about how you think Central American/Honduran culture should be presented and so on and so forth, because the album is ultimately about me.
I agree, the album was lost in translation, but not necessarily in the way you might think. I also agree with your statement that the heart of the album really is right there in the title--everything connects to it. It is the key to understanding the rich, dense subtexts of the album. I know you are capable of engaging with it further than this; if it's a matter of not liking how it sounds, I totally respect that. However, buried beneath surface aesthetics and historical pretexts is a beauty worthy of bearing the name of our land, sculpted with the same guiding hand of God that created our land.
Feel free to respond to any and or all of my questions. If you would like to learn more about the project, you can find a huge repository of information at my e-press kit; included are a number of interviews where I shine light on the intricacies of my album's writing. https://www.montycime.com/epk
Thank you for your time. I hope to hear back soon. Bless
Monty Cime [No response] Person #2
It is a very noble project, the intention from what I can read on the bandcamp description and the interview thats linked in the shoutsmusic blog next to it gives a good idea of where you are coming from with your music. At the same time i feel like the review [from Person #1] describes what's wrong with it perfectly, conceptually and lyrically it is just far from being, or let alone just
feeling, genuine, it is a big dissonance of what is said about the music and what it wants to be contrasting very heavily with what it actually ends up being. Regardless of the musical aesthetic chose for the record it all just feels like a very superficial impersonation of something that has a lot of context and depth behind it, not necessarely of just focusing on the roots of Honduras but also claiming to do it under a genuine Latino perspective which is just far from what it actually ends up conveying (talking from someone who lives in South America and who has seen this stance from other folk who have also listened to the record). Not to call your work devoid of substance because it isn't, there is an intention there, there is a lot of passion and personal drive behind it just to be found when you are talking about where these ideas come from, but at the same time it all feels like someone read the first few pages on some historical events or figures and chose to reference them, sometimes without seeming to really understand their context.
In the end I take it as this, drawing a parallel to the list that was made in order to announce the album, with this very straightforward paragraph that intrigues the reader by introducing the passion and ideas that are suppossedly going to be found by listening to the project. But then the illusion is completely shattered by reading the attempt at translating all that into Spanish, with a broken text that feels like it came by lazily copypasting the text from google translate rather than having even an attempt at translating it with what they know of Spanish. That sensation is what, at least me personally, comes across with the lyrics. In theory there is good heart to be found there, but at the same time in the end it all feels like an aesthetic choice rather than something driven by genuine understandment of the things that are being said or used throughout the whole thing.
Musically not much that I can say, that is the least of it's problems being honest, it sounds very rough, specially with the vocals, but there are good ideas found there, which is nice specially considering it is not that long of a record. Maybe it is a thing of what was used to record some instruments and the vocals or maybe some choices with the mixing but it all ends up sounding very sharp and unpolished at times. Nevertheless, seeing that your passion is music it is just small technical issues that will improve overtime for sure, but as a whole I think my main issues are clear enough as them not having to do much with the music itself.
Hope you can somewhat understand my perspective. Nevertheless, keep loving what you do and keep doing it regardless of anything, you are still young and improvement will come overtime. Cheers!
Reply:
Hi,
I really do appreciate you leaving a comment on my page. I don't want to come off as combative and I understand and quite frankly put your perspective as a LatAm on a pedestal in comparison to someone who may not be familiar with the musical traditions of the region. I think that not everyone will appreciate the compositional/production choices of the album, and that's neither
here nor there. I think that every person's individual listening experience being so varied in enjoyment is a little bit beautiful in that sense. But I do want to address these non-musical concerns if you'll afford me the time. I know it may not change your perspective on the album as a whole, but considering you took the care and effort to read through my interview with Shouts, I figure you might find some of this interesting. Before I get into this, though, I did want to thank you for your words of encouragement for my future. I am taking very careful steps to listening to feedback and filtering them through my intent as an artist for future projects. Thank you for being respectful and thank you for believing in me.
In particular, I'm very sorry that I wasn't able to convey the authenticity of my care through the lyrics of the album themselves. I also understand that a lot of your statements are filtered through perception, which is totally understandable. I get that you may not actually believe that I have a lazy and haphazard understanding of the history of Central America, but rather that from your perception, it comes across as lazy and haphazard. As for the description I made for the list I advertised my album on, yes, you're right! I was lazy in just translating it, and I probably should have taken a good amount of care in translating it word-for-word, but yeah, you're right. I get the comparison. I preface my response with all of this to say that when I am responding to your statements, I am not doing them towards you, I have a lot of respect for you, but rather, I am responding to your perception. Thank you.
The album is just as much about me and about my experience over the past year as it is a truncated reflection of Central American history from independence. The album focuses a lot on cycles--the dialectical materialism of the region which results in similar conflicts arising over and over again. The issues of individualism versus collectivism. Self-determination versus regional unification. People like Francisco Morazan and Guillermo Anderson and the FSLN as well as the Filibusters and the United Fruit Company are overarching metaphors for these struggles. I wrote a good deal about this on my website, https://www.cime.casa, but you can also look at some of the notes of the symbols and other repeated elements on this Google Document which I kept track of.
https://www.cime.casa/storagecloset/prose/themes
It's an album where I struggle so heavily with my own identity in trying to formulate an answer for who and what I am as a product and a reflection of Central America as a region as well as an individual in the face of people I thought were my friends denying my personhood. I am sure that you would understand, then, how saying things like how I come across as an impersonator might take a physical and mental toll on me. But that said, I totally understand and respect this as your perception and your opinion and I hope in the near future to reverse this. The writing is very, very dense and as a consequence I also understand how it may come across as jagged or otherwise mechanical or that this may not be the most efficacious way of writing if my intention is to be understood with clarity. You can read more about the process of the symbolism in that Google Drive but I also understand that ultimately, perception supersedes reality in cases like this.
I hope to find a balance in the middle of all of this sometime in the future. Thank you for your time.
Monty
[No response]