ChuCha Santamaria Y Usted

[koganbot]

Did my monthly MySpace check-in to discover I'd been friended by an excellent electroduo, ChuCha Santamaria Y Usted: Stately beauty against model aircraft beats*, words in Spanish, something in the melodies reminding me of Ray Davies, of all people (I'm probably being daft with the comparison, since ChuCha/Usted aren't using anything like Davies' song structures, which were a quick pop in and out while theirs go for the long dance-floor; but something about the tuneful melancholy...). I don't really know what context to place this pair in at all; María Daniela and some Mexican electro scene, perhaps, though the Santamaria/Usted MySpace says born in Puerto Rico, living in Oakland; their MySpace friends seem to go for experimental electro-pop-rock cut-ups.

*"Model aircraft beats": using this phrase because "toy beats" would give the wrong impression, but the beats are deliberately thin and cheap and playful, without undercutting the tracks' stateliness.