PRESS / RADIO
& so… what DO the press say…..eh??!!
For ACTUAL Press cuttings see HERE!
“Genuinely & Shockingly original!” 5/5 STARS Rock N Reel Magazine “Agitation via world music hasn’t been this enthralling for a long time”4/5 STARS Rolling Stone, Germany “Hits the ground running and doesn’t let up for a moment. Outstanding”
Top Rating, The Independent “Leading us towards some of the old virtues of politically dedicated multicultural musicianship.” www.bluerhythm.de CD of the week “Breathtakingly modern and in the best sense of the word – world/pop-avant-garde. Only Manu Chao, Amparanoia, Lila Downs and very few others are getting politically & socially involved in such an accomplished way. ” www.laut.de CD of the week “I have never been a fan of either Latino tunes or protest songs – but I have to admit here that I am extremely impressed with this album.” 5/5 STARS Sub City Radio “Welcome the new champions of International sound and universal message”
Fly Global Music Culture “New era conquistadors of political punk” – Time Out “This is incendiary music – they cannot and surely will not be ignored” – Songlines Magazine “Spirited debut…..hits the ground running & doesn’t let up. These guys want to party while they’re saving the world!” 5/5 stars – The Independent “Home grown fusionists with Anthemic Punk Ferocity ” Recommended Summer Download
– The Independent “Not so much a pop group… more an attitude……..more a way of life…..more a way of thinking”
BBC 6 Music “Fervent debut – politically provocative, it happens to sound rather damn good too! 5/5 stars
Jungle Drums Magazine “Spirit of Punk, heart of the sixties protest movement & the soul of the Black Panthers. You are going to take to the streets and praise this record to the heavens!”
4/5 stars – www.music-news.com
Some Reviews in Full
Rolling Stone Magazine, May 09 Germany 4 stars Agitation via world music hasn’t been this enthralling for a long time: in the lyrics of this urban troubadour the perverseness of democracy is disclosed using Jorge Ben’s ‘mas que nada’-loop and the media brainwashing is decried, stupid dignitaries are fought against with a megaphone and acoustic reggae. The hyperventilating guitar and the staccato vocals are supported by fiery hand percussion, scratch and electro effects are braided in sparingly, a suave women’s choir, a dervish violin and an Arabic flute are duelling with a Bush speech.” 4/5 STARS Rolling Stone May 2009 Blue Rythm – Germany ‘CD of the Week’“if someone is announced in the same context as Manu Chao, one should be careful nowadays. The stern-waves of the mestizo-hype have left us with a bunch of mediocre shout-bands after all. But you should prick up your ears for Pietro DiMascio, who calls himself Peyoti – out of the globalized monotony, he and almost twenty sidemen and women are leading us towards some of the old virtues of politically dedicated multicultural musicianship.” www.bluerhythm.de CD of the week and Jazz Thing review 04-06 09 Laut.de – Germany ‘CD of the week’
Breathtakingly modern and in the very best sense World Pop & Avant Garde. What audacious, innovative integration giving transport to classics in a contemporary context. Grossly impertinent the combination of Rock, Punk & Pop, Samba, Salsa & Rhumba from British artists collective, Peyoti for President. Mr Matthias Manthe says: So far, the spirit of empire formation & shines with experimentation – all enriched with a decent shot of the party & feel-good music! So skillful a mix only Manu Chao, Amparanoia, Lila Downs and a few others have managed to achieve. In this Peyoti wonderland I also would like to live where snake charmers and Indian, south and North Americans, whites and blacks, old world and new world are celebrating a peaceful co-existence. I want my tent up here forever, where these songs are sung – evil men have no songs. But, back to reality. Since then (2001 with 1 Giant leap album – sounded like clever), no world-music pearl on this scale has reached my ears. What the bloody hell is this? By the end of this album you have been politicised, dancisised, attitudinised and thoroughly desocialised. You are going to take to the streets and praise this to the heavens and you are going to do this with a smile and a shake of your hips and a toot on your whistle – and go back and listen again and do the whole dam thing all over again! Pietro combines samba, flamenco and elements of folk to create a message laden and thoroughly pissed-off album of protest, but protest in the best possible way, with a smile and a knowing wink. He is the spirit of punk, the heart of the 60’s protest movement and the soul of the Black Panthers but he is incredibly listenable and just great to shake a booty to – if you happen to get a lesson in social deportment along the way, well that’s cool too! REVIEW – Music-News.com 4 stars From the first few ‘Firestarter’-like bars of the opener, ‘Take A Leap’, which swerves sharply through a musical slalom of ticking clocks, crowd noises, insistent flamenco, staccato salsa and echoey male vocals about revolution and fighting the system, Peyoti for President has you sitting up, hair on end, and taking notice. Manu Chao did; the rabble-rousing London collective ended up supporting their hero on his recent sell-out UK tour as a result. Initially envisaged by Anglo-Italian singer Pietro DiMascio and Anglo-Brazilian percussionist Ulisses Bezerra, Peyoti for President cut and paste together pop, politics, sound effects and the sounds of multicultural London on this quite stunning debut. Tracks like the carnivalesque ‘We The People’ sweeten messages such as ‘Commodity, pathology and craven anti-ology/Competing in a partnership of broken ideology’ with whistles and smooth bossa touches; while ‘No Me Siento Malo’ is a rollicking tale of unrequited love that has a chugging party vibe.
DiMascio’s voice is compelling: rich, resonant and beautifully enunciated. He is something of a standard bearer for a musically savvy generation of party-loving activists – he’s up there with the likes of revered British Asian percussionist Dinesh, erstwhile Natacha Atlas ney player Louai Alhenawi and a wealth of musicians from Australia and India to Jamaica and Spain. ‘Protest the rising tide of conformity’ ordered Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in 1964. Forty-odd years later, with consumerism running riot, Peyoti for President are still pulling the plug out. SONGLINES MAGAZINE, UK
Rock n Reel Magazine UK – May 2009 5 stars
Explicitly political music in Britain still tends to generally fall into one of two categories: the angry young ska/punk bands such as king Blues and Sonic Boom Six – and those radical folk singers (Gaughan, Rosselson, Bragg) who know there’s more to tradition than maypoles and fair maidens. Which is why Peyoti for President are such a breath of fresh air: they fit neither description and can hopefully confuse those who dismiss political music as the ‘same old same old.’
In a globalised world, it seems more important than ever to find new and universal ways of expressing anger and dissatisfaction and desire for change. This album – its title taken from a 1964 photograph of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan – sounds like a perfectly apt response to the madness of a world at war. 5 STARS
THE INDEPENDENT – 3rd May 2009 Outstanding 5 STARS. “This spirited debut hits the ground running and doesn’t let up for a moment. It’s a fizzing cocktail of funked-up flamenco and Manu Chao style pop/rock which owes as much to Ojos de Brujo as it does to The Clash. Frontman DiMascio sings with a Bolanesque croon while strumming his acoustic with finger bleeding intensity and although much of the material has a political slant, there’s no proselytising; these guys want to party while they’re saving the world.”