Rough Guide To Latino Nuevo

[coll]: Rough Guide to Latino Nuevo
Reviewed by Sadie O., 9/28/07
Wide variety of modern Latin music (no Reggaeton, sorry!) Extremely good musicianship on all – I could have given more stars. I have the feeling most cuts were chosen for wide accessibility – and weren’t what I would have chosen! Still good, of course…
One almost indistinguishable FCC on track 12. Most tracks all in Spanish.
Track 5 is really unusual and cool, 6 and 8 are fun, it’s all good…
1. *standup bass intro, very cool downtempo cumbia. Fades a bit early.
2. *guitar duet intro, midtempo cha cha with cool hoarse vocals. A bit of heavy metal guitar, just to ramp things up a notch.
3. *uptempo and energetic Afro-Caribbean-Latin stew from P.R.
4. *upbeat mix of merengue and house. Definitely Nuevo. Gets kinda dubby, too.
5. ****betcha didn’t know there’s a huge East Indian community in the Caribbean. Most of them tend to the very popular “Soca Chutney” style – this is completely different, and VERY cool.
6. ***latin funk with very African-influenced percussion, choral chanting, wah-wah guitar. Nice and thick and hearty.
7. **midtempo salsa with a mess of funk, some scratching and a smidge of ska, fine horns, vocals and beat. We have several CDs by these guys – they’re terrific.
8. ***flutes intro, then a wildly energetic Latin soca – strictly party in the streets stuff.
9. **hand percussion intro, happy and upbeat Afro-Latin with a touch of funk.
10. *downtempo and mellow with strong 2/4 beat and acoustic guitar, pretty solo vocals.
11. dreamy acoustic guitar and electronics, pretty female vocals.
12. FCC – “shit” – very fleeting. *extremely downtempo jazz-bluesy intro, then midtempo hand drums and salsa vocals. Somehow still laid-back. Switches up to Latin hip hop halfway through. Some rap in English, political.
13. **downtempo Latin Hip Hop, rap in English (from SF!), consciousness lyrics. Obviously a couple of cleaned up FCCs – thanks for that…
14. *slow violin intro, then very slow lament with very pretty female vocals. It’s beautiful, but I like their more aggressive stuff better. Ends with lots of handdrums.