Look at that

INTRODUCING MR.BROWN - MELQUI

MELQUI is set to drop a concept album this year: Brown
This is the official soundtrack for the 2007 remake of the fictional 1986 Mexican-American romantic comedy drama: a film that might’ve faded from memory over time. It’s the type of movie you see montages of on TikTok, as well as nostalgic, quoted screenshots on Tumblr. It’s easily taken out of its cinematic context and partially remembered for its “postable” potential.

MELQUI originated in Amsterdam in 2020. It currently includes Lau Hochman, Siebren Smink, Sara Frances Tompkins, Aniol Torrents and Chen Har-Even. The record Brown, produced by Tim Schakel (Nana Adjoa, Leah Rye), follows the story of Mr. Brown, which is divided into side A (moments from 6 pm to 11 pm) and side B (from 12 pm to 4 am).

Mr. Brown is a businessman at the bottom of capitalism’s corporate pyramid. Disillusioned with society, he sets out to get drunk in the streets of Tokyo- the perfect trope for a 2000s remake of an ‘80s movie. This story is written by a different part of Lautaro, the one that doesn’t write love songs. By writing for someone else, instead of about himself, Lau explores fakeness, arrogance, wearing sunglasses on stage and perhaps a suit and tie?



“We spent all this time and resources making this album, and then we called it Brown. And we want to make the physical vinyl in brown. That’s very now, that’s very us. And it’s very serious in that way, that it’s a serious joke” - Lau Hochman
Brown was recorded live in the Catalan mountains, live meaning the band was in the same room playing together in real time. This captures the urgency of Brown that grew from a stream of live performances that were happening often up until the summer when they recorded the record. 

MELQUI’s music becomes extremely thrilling once you see them perform on stage. There is an energetic force that’s entangled in the band. Like a drunk dancer, Lau jumps around the stage, frantically shaking his head and knocking over anything that’s in his way, such as mic stands and equipment. It’s exciting to witness danger on stage. Since the rest of the band seems to maintain a sane attitude, Lau plays between what’s performed and what isn’t, leaving us questioning if his movements were thought-out decisions or spontaneous spurts of energy.

“I moved like this when I was fifteen, I wanted to do it again” - Lau

Image by Nikola Lamburov
Later in our conversation, we discussed a quote from the British artist Jeremy Dellar: “I think art can offer personal salvation in the way that religion did once. I think it can change people's lives on an individual basis. Whether it can change whole societies, I'm not sure.” Music is much more accessible than art in many ways. It creates powerful anthems for the world. Lau isn’t so sure that his music can change the world, but he is sure of what he doesn’t want it to do:

“You can eat a botterham every day, and I don’t want to be a botterham. Food is very functional, and music can also be functional, but it’s nice to eat nice food. We don’t need to go to the most expensive restaurant, but people like to eat nice things. It’s very unprotestant in that way.” - Lau

In the middle of the second wave of revivals, like the punk revival-revival, MELQUI puts in perfect focus the nostalgic double lens with which our generation looks at past cultures and subcultures that we haven’t lived through. This feels extremely relevant right now, a borderless, reference-crossing, inconsistent music taste. Despite the band’s clear identity, all the songs of the album sound very different, almost like an album playlist, and that’s very 80s, perhaps 80s revival-revival-revival?