We don’t really cover single releases (apart from the occasional premiere) so we thought we would start a new section on the blog where we shout about some random new singles we have been sent or discovered ourselves in some dusty corner. All kinds of music that we may not have time to cover as albums or one time one-offs. Enjoy! Tell your friends! This episode includes Nicola Cruz, Voodoo Drummer, Romperayo, Cyril Cyril, Chizawa Q & more...
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Damian Dalla Torre - I Can Feel My Dreams (Squama Recordings) - a review
The second album by Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist Damian Dalla Torre is a sublime ambient-not-ambient jazz-not-jazz record that inhabits its own beautiful meditative space. Inspired by the environment of Santiago, Chile and awash with a painterly quality, ‘I Can Feel My Dreams’ is an experimental record that is somehow also universal in its emotional naturalness. With guests of the calibre of Miriam Adefris, Ruth Goller, Christian Balvig and Jan Soutschek along for the trip, why not tag along? Or just lie down and let it float around you. Read / Listen.
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Conjunto Papa Upa 'Fruta Madura' (Music With Soul) - a review
Our favourite Venezuelan polymath Alex Figueira is back with another full length album of burning hot ‘tropical’ psychedelic dancers. For once, he doesn’t do everything himself, inviting the members of the live incarnation of his Conjunto Papa Upa band to bring their instrumental magic to his ever-improving songwriting and vocal chops. With over two dozen genres mashed into this Latin music charged feast, ‘Fruta Madura’, has fire, wit and groove in its belly. Read / Listen.
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Earthtones 'We Can Live Together' (Wonderwheel Recordings) - a review
Californian yoga teacher, DJ and ritualist Serge Bandura’s Earthtones project moves from its ambient foundations to the dancefloor with this spiritually-charged blend of deep house warmth, Latin-infused rhythms and killer vocal contributions from collaborators from Colombia, Ecuador and Ethiopia. Ceremonially funky with moments of ocean deep atmosphere, ‘We Can Live Together’ is his prayer for peace. Read / Listen.
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Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly 'MESTIZX' (International Anthem / Nonesuch Records) - a review
The debut album ‘MESTIZX’ by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly for Chicago’s influential International Anthem label and in collaboration with Nonesuch Records is an astonishingly potent record that touches on ancestral histories, post-colonial resistance and rage, ancient spells and so much more. Avant-Jazz, Post-Rock, Afro-Latin rhythms and a myriad of influences and inspirations colour this brilliant record. One of the best releases of the year. Read / Listen.
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Merengue Típico 'Nueva Generación!' (Bongo Joe Records) - a review
There can’t be many (or any) European compilations that take a deep dive into the Dominican Republic’s musical heritage but thankfully, Belgian vinyl digger Xavier Daive has spent many years in DR searching through long forgotten record shelves and boxes to bring us this fine collection of the second wave of merengue típico released a few days ago on the excellent Bongo Joe Records. Fast and frenetic party music propelled by hyperspeed accordion and fizzing guiras, “Merengue Típico 'Nueva Generación!” is a superb overview of this wildly popular Latin Caribbean genre. We asked our friend and DR native Mauro Ferreiro for his thoughts. Read / Listen
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Viva el Sábado: Peruvian disco pop hits (1978-1989) (Buh Records)
Luis Alvarado from Buh Records has dug deeper than most to find this treasure trove of obscure Peruvian disco and disco-adjacent wobblers from 1978-89. Some are raw and untamed, some are as shiny as the 80s demanded but all are fun and funky! Read / Listen.
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Luzmila Carpio 'Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol' (ZZK) - a review
The great Bolivian Andean singer, producer and activist Luzmila Carpio hasn’t released a new album in a decade (she has made over 25 though!) but she is now back with a beautiful collaboration with Argentinian folktronica producer Leonardo Martinelli that is both charming and deeply emotional in equal measure. Luzmila’s voice has lost none of its power or childlike wonder and her songs of ritual, communion and ceremony merge seamlessly with Martinelli’s soundscapes. A triumph. Read / Listen
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Coco María presents Club Coco ¡AHORA! The Latin sound of now (Bongo Joe) - a review
The acclaimed DJ and radio host Coco María has curated a second compilation of contemporary Latin sounds for Bongo Joe but this time she has passed her cultured eye over the more untamed pan-global proponents of the music and it is brilliant! With contributions from Truth & Lies favourites Alex Figueira and Acid Coco via tracks from scene godfather Eblis Álvarez and wild grooves from Guess What and Candeleros to moments of joyful melody from Las Mijas, this is an essential record for lovers of Latino or tropical psychedelic sounds. Read / Listen.
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Joaquín Cornejo meets Markandeya 'Vision Versions' (Earthly Measures) - a review
Ecuadorian producer Joaquín Cornejo has delivered a dub reinterpretation of another dub album from the Swedish producer Markandeya for Earthly Measures and it is really quite beautiful in it’s languid sundried atmosphere. Sensual, colourful and not without rhythmic surprises, this is perfect for horizontal living or cranked up for the dawn rave. Read / Listen
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Artwork by Lewis Heriz
Insólito UniVerso 'Ese Puerto Existe' (Olindo Records) - a review
For their second album for Olindo Records, the Venezuelan trio Insólito UniVerso have gone deep into their country’s musical heritage, exploring rhythms and musical strains whilst adding their own psychedelic, experimental vision. With guests including Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier, the trio have produced a brilliantly written and produced record that is our favourite album of the year so far and one likely to stay in our boxes for a long time. Read / Listen
Read MoreEmpanadas Ilegales 'Luna Modular (Creepy Mambo Single Version)' - T&L PREMIERE!
We are pleased to premiere an exclusive single version of ‘Luna Modular’ from the Vancouver based psychedelic cumbia and salsa outfit - the hilariously named Empanades Ilegales. On the eve of the release of their second album, ‘Creepy Mambo’, it has that infectious psyche-surf-cumbia abandonment of acts like Meridian Brothers and is sure to shake those hips hard! Read / Listen / Buy here..
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Los Kenya 'Siempre Afro-Latino' (Música Infinita/Olindo Records) - a review
A ridiculously fresh sounding Venezuelan salsa LP reissued for the first time since 1968 from one of the most prolific bandleaders of the time, Ray Perez. Hip, sexy, full of swagger and serious playing, Música Infinita/Olindo Records have done this reissue the right way, with beautiful new artwork and a fat remaster from The Carvery. Read / Listen here
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Photo: Daniel Rodríguez
Isaac Sasson 'Canciones de Isaac' (Olindo Records) - a review
Isaac Sasson has released an album of perfectly poised gentleness containing thirteen evocative folky vignettes of life and family in Venezuela and Barcelona. Field recordings of nature accompany his tender voice, exquisite songwriting and light touch multi-instrumentalism. It’s a stunning record. Read / Listen
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Penya 'False Prophets' (Liminal Recordings) - video and Cuba Solidarity Campaign
The genre-busting Penya have a brand new remix EP on the way and for the first three months, all the Bandcamp sales raised from their brilliant new single ‘False Prophets’ will be going towards the COVID-19 Medical Appeal for Cuba via the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Afro-latino rhythms from the past hurtling into the future is their game and we’re big fans. Check the superb video and order the remix pack here
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Various Artists 'Color de Trópico Vol. 2' (El Palmas Music) - a review
A top shelf compilation of impossible to find music from Venezuela’s boom years (1966 - 78) touching on cumbia, salsa, folkloric and even localised versions of Fela Kuti and Desmond Dekker to get you moving and smiling… Read / Listen here
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Retusa: Luis Pérez Ixoneztli 'Santuario de Mariposas' (Tokonoma Records) - a review
An extraordinary sonic journey into an imagined Aztec past using archaic instruments and a deep well of ritual and mind-altering experimentation. Sometimes there's a heavy groove, sometimes the jungle is inside you. A brilliant and first time reissue of this little heard collection of magic on Tokonoma Records. Read / Listen…
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Gerry Weil 'The Message' (Música Infinita) - a review
A superb reissue of Gerry Weil’s funky Jazz-Rock opus ‘The Message’ is a snapshot of 1970’s Venezuela and a reminder that the hippie dreamers could create some serious art amongst the spiritual platitudes…Read / Listen here…
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Photo by Rafael Passos
Berra Boi (live) in João Pessoa (Paraíba) for Zona Mundi Festival - video and review
Berra Boi are an experimental instrumental trio led by our friend Chico Correa, a producer, musician and DJ from Brazil who has proven time and again his willingness to dive deep into intriguing musical spaces without prejudice. For this psychedelic live performance for the recent online Zona Mundi Festival, the trio explore electronics alongside the indigenous rhythms of Northeastern Brazil creating an audio-visual freak-zone of their own….Watch / read here!
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Mariachi Las Adelitas - El Toro Relajo (video)
Europe’s only all-female Mariachi band (endorsed by Salma Hayek no less), have managed to navigate the lockdown troubles of 2020 and remotely record a stunning rearrangement of the Felipe Bermejo song ‘El Toro Relajo’ and it’s wonderful. Watch the video here….
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