SOUNDTRACK: BUSCABULLA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #66 (August 18, 2020).
I 
know of Buscabulla from some glowing reviews of their debut album. Their story is an interesting one as well.
Buscabulla is made up of husband and wife Luis Alfredo Del Valle and Raquel Berrios, two Puerto Rico-born musicians who were based in New York until 2017. When their birthplace was devastated by Hurricanes Maria and Irma that year, they decided to leave New York and go back to where they were born. It was an emotional journey, one that inspired the songs of Regresa and which they chronicled for an upcoming mini-documentary.
Despite that setup, their music is soft and gentle–ethereal and beautiful. Raquel Berrios’ voice is delicately echoed and sexy without being over the top.
Their setting for this Tiny Desk (Home) (Beach) Concert is the trunk of their van. Luis del Valle has created a studio within the car that perfectly reflects the band’s sound. So two of them are
sitting inside their car at the beach in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico performing their Tiny Desk (home) concert. It’s as if the bubble of being inside the car will protect them from any chances of encountering the virus on the beach. But it’s also a reflection of how the band’s atmospheric sonic textures get inside your head when we listen with headphones. Buscabulla set up shop in New York years ago, but returned to their home to help support the island’s redevelopment — thus their entry from the beach.
It looks almost like a Zoom meeting background, with the gentle waves lapping against the shore, although in the beginning of the video you can see some people walking on the beach.
The set starts with “Mio” which has a cool slinky bass line from Luis Del Valle and an inset video of JD Matías playing timbales and cowbell. And although LD Valentín is laying down some nice backing keys (also in an inset), it’s Berrios who plays the trippy keyboard solo.
“Nydia” has a funkier bass line and layered spacey keys from Valentín. Berrios’ voice floats above all of it.
The duo have to maneuver a bit in that cramped space to play the final song. Luis puts his bass outside of the car (!) and switches to keys. Berrios also plays keys and this lovely set ends as beautifully as it began.
I’m not sure what kind of car this is, but it’s a pretty decent ad for trunk space–maybe Buscabulla could make some cash. It’s also a pretty nice ad for the gorgeous beaches of Puerto Rico.
[READ: August 20, 2020] “You Are My Dear Friend”
I thought this story was going to be about a British couple living in India, because it opens with a British couple living in India. They are hosting a party and their daughters’ au-pair, Geeta, brings their two little girls to meet everyone.
One of the party goers is a middle-aged Indian man sitting by himself. He looks old and tired.
A few days later Geeta is at the markets and she runs into this man. She has trouble placing him at first then she realizes that this man, Srikanth, was the man from the party. He talks with her and she resists engaging with him at first. Then she rethinks, and turns to talk to the man.
They met a few more times and then decided to get married.
Geeta, who was recently twenty-nine, left the family she loved and started a new one with Srikanth. Srinkanth was in his mid-fifties and was divorced with an adult daughter.
Geeta was afraid to ask him about his ex-wife or his daughter. He seemed to merely feign interest in her stories and her life. Indeed, when she said that her school life was boring, he retorted “you’re not boring” which is not what she meant.
Srikanth was not the best husband. He was angry when she didn’t keep things to his standards. And he grew angry with her, the more she seemed not to fulfill his needs.
Finally he determined that she wanted a child. The problem was not him, of course, it was her. She could not have children. So they decided to adopt. Her husband encouraged her to find an older child otherwise he will “be dead before it has started walking.”
They adopted Rani, an eight year old girl who was nearly as tall as Geeta.
Almost immediately Rani started dominating Geeta. The girls in the British house who Geeta looked after were sweet and docile and this new girl proved quickly too much for her.
Rani criticized Geeta’s housekeeping and her cooking. She even criticized her for not knowing anything about her husband’s former wife or his daughter. It was true, Geeta had never asked why during their year of marriage Srikanth had not heard from his daughter.
Rani started demanding Geeta’s jewelry. She said she wanted to give it to her mother who was in jail (this was not true, exactly).
Geeta had had enough and finally insisted that Srikanth deal with it. He told her matter of factly that he worked all day–and she was the one who wanted the child. But he finally agreed to deal with it in his own way–he told Rani to pack her bags and leave. And so Rani did–gladly-walking down the street without looking back.
Srikanth was sure she would turn around and come back, but no chance. Geeta asked if this is what he had done with his own daughter years earlier and that was why he had no idea where she was. He had to run after Rina and drag her back home.
That night he was kind to Geeta for the first time in a while and told her that he felt they needed to get rid of Rani. She was already willful, she was only going to get worse and make new terrible friends. Geeta conceded to his suggestion.
The story ends years later when she sees a young woman working in a store. She looks familiar.
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