Words by Justin Turford
We’ve covered this Canadian psyche-cumbia outfit before on the eve of their ‘Creepy Mambo’ album launch so it only seems right to holler about the zinging first single from their forthcoming live album ‘Creepy Mambo: Rooftop Sessions’ which comes out in April on the We Are Time label.
Made up of expats from Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia (plus Canadians), Empanades Illegales have evolved into a serious party band, their psyche, salsa, cumbia, jazz and rock’n’roll combination beautifully exemplified on their live recordings, from which 'La Danza Del Vampiro' comes from.
“This is our homage to an old school cumbia song from the 1950s by Sonido Verde de Moyobamba. Whenever we travel we go digging to find music that you can’t hear anywhere else, and when Danny went back to Colombia he found this record. It has a very happy vibe with African beats and a calypso feel that’s not directly a cumbia. Jaimie and I always like to have conversations with our guitar solos, so we decided to switch back and forth with different tones and then come together with the new melody we wrote that ends the song. It’s not a conversation anymore because we’re talking at the same time.”
Empanadas Ilegales (Credit Iris Chia)
Since we last met the band, cumbia has gone into overdrive, its addictive, wonky charms around the globe gaining practitioners on every continent, but there’s no replacement for those who have it in their blood, and these ‘Illegals’ have it in all its life-giving glory.
Single released on Feb 14th 2024
Album released on April 5th 2024 - Pre-order HERE!
https://empanadasilegales.bandcamp.com/album/creepy-mambo-rooftop-sessions