Todos Tus Muertos – Greatest Hits
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/4/08
Reggae, ska, dub, and raging punk rock, from Argentina. Band has been highly influential in South America since 1985; kind of a cross between, say, Bad Brains and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Almost all in Spanish with just a few bits of spoken patois.
No FCCs detected (except in Jamaican patois).
Tracks 1-5, 8-10, and 17-18 all reggae, tracks 6, 7, 11 part punk, tracks 12-16 all punk. I like 10, 6, 18 best.
1. 4:12 **big intro for 26 seconds, then frantic ska intro, then uptempo but more subdued skank. Didn’t really grab me until about a minute and a half along. Odd electronic outro.
2. 4:40 **Jamaican punky female spoken intro (obscene in patois), then downtempo syncopated skank, deep male spoken voice and singing. Kinda mellow and swingy.
3. 3:24 **punky ska with pretty Spanish guitar. Turns into pure Carneval with lots of big percussion.
4. 5:09 ***crying in my tequila intro, then jolly midtempo skank
5. 3:31 **pretty downtempo lopsided skank, nice but quirky love song. Bit of English lyrics from the Black Uhuru hit.
6. 3:51 ****Spanish guitar intro, then rather nutty uptempo marching riddim which goes rather oddly with the pretty guitar. Drunk and disorderly chorus, then total raging punk rock. Yowza! Ends with random noises, cut off.
7. 3:13 ***bass intro, jazzy midtempo skank, then kind of punk hip hop you only find south of our borders. Suddently turns into Indian tabla and chant. Ooop, back to total punk!
8. 5:46 **midtempo roots skank. Interesting vocal combination. Bit of nyahbinghi/dub.
9. 5:24 ***fun midtempo skank with plenty of attitude and apparently a fair amount of tequila as well.
10. 3:35 *****uptempo skank with lots of fun noises and dub, deep spoken vocals.
11. 4:45 ***swingy midtempo cha cha skank cover of Guantanamera, then uptempo punk, and back to south of the border skank.
12. 3:04 **straight up punk rock. Ends with Sputnik beeps.
13. 2:20 **feedback intro, absolutely manic punk rock.
14. 3:17 ***midtempo garage punk with a bit of syncopation.
15. 2:23 **long count off chant intro, then big midtempo ska punk.
16. 2:00 **somewhat uptempo garage punk with a bit of wah wah.
17. 4:53 ***downtempo dub, recorded live (and very stoned). Chill, and VERY dubby. Long random spoken outro.
18. 4:57 ****very uptempo skank, also live. Less than perfect sound, but some nice vocal work, somewhat dubby.