Yerba Buena – Island Life (Razor and Tie)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 9/26/05
Latin fusion dance party groove, entertaining and memorable songs. Most songs are mid-tempo, high-energy Cuban-tinged cumbia mixed with hip hop and whatever else is lying around in the sun at the moment. This is fun stuff and doesn’t pretend to be anything else – and it is definitely meant for shaking that booty to! Tons of guests – apart from the Leguizamo intro to track 2, there are appearances by members of Los Nubians, Orishas, Gogol Bordello, Dead Prez and many others, including Flamenco superstar Diego “El Cigala”. There are also annoying bits of fake Indian doctor spoken nonsense, but they don’t impinge on any of the actual songs. Songs are great - fun, well-written, great beat…
FCC: track 10 “shit” in the chorus and “fucking” x 3 near end, track 17 “damn”, “pissiness”.
I’ve been playing track 8 a lot, but 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 (FCC!), 13, 14 also sizzle, everything but Indian doctor stuff well worth playing.
1. 1:19 silly Indian doctor spoken intro
2. 3:56 **rockin’ cumbia in Spanish, full sound with horns, great party number. Several quiet breaks leading back into dance groove.
3. 4:13 **John Leguizamo spoken intro (35 secs), mid-tempo latin syncopation w/ infectious English chorus.
4. 4:59 *starts with 10 seconds of theramin, then cumbia in English with Spanish rap.
5. 4:29 **Arabian and pseudo-Arabian tunes fused with uptempo latin hip hop. Fun!
6. 5:41 **drums and chants show the African influence on Caribbean music. Great beats – just try and sit still to this.
7. 4:34 *guitars and el Cigala’s vocals star; mid-tempo nuevo-flamenco, rather more laid-back than most tracks.
8. 5:11 ***great beat and horns, fun lyrics in English.
9. 6:27 *syncopation and horns, uptempo but a bit laid back, guest syncopated rapper, kinda “smooth groove”.
10. 6:11 **random talking in Spanish first few seconds, mid-tempo Cubano beat, mostly Spanish lyrics except chorus “What’s all that shit coming out of your mouth?” some inane George Bush clips.
-> Fade down at 5:30 to avoid rather silly spoken ending about music biz involving lots of “fucking”.
11. 4:23 *uptempo, almost a fast polka
12. 0:50 more silly Indian doctor stuff
13. 5:04 **Pan-Latin with hints of Middle Eastern, mid-tempo all in Spanish, trumpet and Arabian flute break through fat mix.
14. 5:06 **down-beat laid-back groove, sweet guitar, hand claps, mostly female vocals, flamenco guest singer/speakers. Longish outro with flamenco guitar and female whispering.
15. 2:48 *acoustic version of track 2, great vocals. Actually ends 30 secs early.
16. 4:36 more (mostly) silly Indian doctor stuff
17. 4:06 *remix of track 3, added electronica, instruments sent to back of mix, additional Leguizamo bit with minor FCCs.