TAO Noise
PO Box 429
New York, NY 10150

by Jean Beauvais
1997

"We've been exploited by an illegitimate U.S. system in Puerto Rico, and we've been shit on and spit on ever since we set foot in these un-United states. This is just part of our reality, and in our music, as in our lives, we strive to keep it real and revolutionary."
 

With the sudden resurgence in the popularity and profitability of punk/hardcore, a small, but tenacious brigade of musicians have dedicated themselves to vomiting forth note-for-note carbon copies of early to mid-eighties punk rock. Ricanstruction, a band consisting of four Puerto Ricans from New York City, also incorporates the raw power and sonic sensibilities of hardcore punk, but instead of simply engaging in the facile art of  regurgitation, Ricanstruction has fused them with percolating and progressive Latin percussion, angry, yet soulful vocals, revolutionary rhetoric, and a hip hop hard-line that both Chuck D and Che guevara could appreciate. This band drops lyrical science like letter bombs, and bangs out raw, and often noisy, yet complex and groove-laced rhythms that are as danceable as they are overwhelming. "Growing up in New York, we were exposed to everything from Willie Colon and Celia Cruz to the Clash, Miles and Monk to Marley and Mayfield, Bad Brains to Bambatta." States drummer Joseph Rodriguez, adding "After being exposed to all that incredible flavor, you would have to be really uninspired not to search through and experiment with these gifts ofsoulful truth."As Puerto Ricans who have embraced such a wide genre of musical styles, Ricanstruction have bee confronted by various reactions - "From Latinos who can't  understand why four  Ricans would do anything other that traditional Latino music, to those who are ecstatic that we're doing something different. And, of course, we getsimilar reactions from non-Latinos." Exclaims bassist Arturo Rodriguez, adding, "eventually, it becomes clear that we don't go along with the notion that artists should allow themselves to be trapped in any racial, ethnic, cultural, or artistic ghettos designed solely to pidgin them." So what role does cultural background play when you seek to make music that refuses to be categorized? For Ricanstruction this is a question of great importance. "In our music, we try to maintain our particular culture, and all the pride and strength that goes along with it, and we also try to search within ourselves and figure out who we are and were we're going." Declares Joseph Rodriguez. "In order for a culture and a people to survive, it must evolve and be dynamic," adds vocalist and self styled prophet, Alano Baez, continuing, "we will not be tomorrow who we are today, nor are we today who we were yesterday. Our music is very Puerto Rican because we are very Puerto Rican, and not because it fits neatly into anyone's racist notions of what a Puerto Rican band should sound like."But Ricanstruction is not just about musical expression, staunchly adhering to the belief that to be a Puerto Rican in America is to be at war with a U.S. government that has colonized their Caribbean island homeland for nearly a hundred years. They are deadly serious about their militant messages. "We're not politicians or preachers," states Alano, the poor mans Prophet, calmly adding, "just a people who have struggled through hundreds of years of downpression and transgression and are still here to tell the story." And then as his voice begins to rise, "We've seen slavery and we know poverty. We've been exploited by an illegitimate U.S. system in Puerto Rico, and we've been shit on and spit on ever since we set foot in these un-United states. This is just part of our reality, and in our music, as in our lives, we strive to keep it real and revolutionary."And real and revolutionary they are, lashing out against injustice with an overpowering and righteous fury, Ricanstruction wield their guitars like weapons of self defense, and attack each song  with an honest fervor and original flavor. "If our music is sometimes angry, it's just because that how we sometimes feel." States Joseph Rodriguez. Ricanstruction is indeed at war, and their battle is a tough one, both against an imperialist U.S. Government, and a corporate music machine that thrives on  perpetuating nothing but the same old non-threatening and proven formulas. These Ricans may not be quite ready for prime time, with their excitingly dangerous, unique, and refreshingly conscious urban music that manages to encompass all the creative cultural diversity of Latino lives lived in the diaspora and still rock harder than you.