Excellent Japanese compilation of Latin sounds from New York. There's a great mix of stuff here, from straight up boogaloo to more soulful songs like 'Cowboys to Girls', or fuzz guitar madness on tracks like 'My Daddy's Farm', and all the big names (Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Joe Bataan) are represented alongside some more obscure groups like the TNT Band or Orchestra Harlow. Enjoy.
Tracklist:
01 Reminiscences
02 Que Paso (Wa Happens)
03 Got Myself Together
04 Bridges
05 Searching For Love
06 My Daddy's Farm
07 Chin Chow
08 Chinito Boogaloo
09 Subway
10 Slow Down
11 Cowboys To Girls
12 Michelle
13 Coquero
14 Grazin' In The Grass
15 At The Hamburgea Shop
16 Safari
17 Willie's Whopper
18 ME__
19 Bridges
20 De Que Te Quejas
21 Las Quisquellanas
22 Reminiscences
23 At Last
Picked this album up at a boot sale on Sunday, and had a lovely surprise when I got it home and was treated to some of the most exhilarating and joyous dance music I've heard in years. The title track will probably be familiar to many...I knew I'd heard it before but just couldn't think where until I found this:
(It takes a lot for me to admit so publicly that I sometimes can't think of anything better to do than watch Strictly Come Dance Factor).
Anyway, this is the NuyoricanBoogaloo sound at its most infectious, the perfect sountrack to some libidinous carnival.
Tracklist:
01 I Like It Like That 02 El Hueso 03 Pete's Madness 04 Micaela 05 3 And 1 06 Si Quieres Bailar 07 Soy El Rey
BOOGALOO...its a wonderful, theatrical word, a dancing word that some think is related to Bou Jeloud - the Pan-like fertility god of misrule and inversion celebrated at the festivals of the Atlas Montains. The festival of Bou Jeloud is a ritual masquerade during which the young men of the villages dress up in goatskins and smear themselves with egg and flour:
"...the masqueraders are allowed almost unlimited licence. They swear and attack onlookers, enact sexual copulation in in public in front of women, enter the women's homes while the men of the house are absent, demand or steal food...these sacrificial goat clowns even satirize Qu'aranic verses. As part of their routine they enact ploughing, harvesting and a mock wedding. During the whole time they take over the village, senior men are banished and becomes the domain of young men, women and children. The masqueraders scatter great sacks of ash over the people and their houses. They themselves roll in the soot of the great cooking pots that heat the ablution waters at the mosque. The ash from the fires of the ablution is an accumulation of a whole year of burnt firewood. One may speculate that these remains of the burning in the mosque are powerfully imbued with baraka. Hence, despite their licentious and transgressive behaviour, as they scatter the ash and flail people with their hooves and skins, the sacrificial clowns bring desired blessing to each and every household."
P. Werbner (2001) "The Limits of Cultural Hybridity: On Ritual Monsters, Poetic Licence and Contested Postcolonial Purifications" in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 7, 2001, p. 140
The music is, of course, for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear then go out and try and buy stuff...or something, give money to a down on his luck musician, or sponsor a good busker, it may be the start of something beautiful.
If any of the zips die, then post a comment and i'll try to repost. And leave comments, abuse, name calling, any response is welcome.
I think all of the albums posted are currently unavailable, but if this is not the case we'll remove the offending files.
Excellent Japanese compilation of Latin sounds from New York. There's a great mix of stuff here, from straight up boogaloo to more soulful songs like 'Cowboys to Girls', or fuzz guitar madness on tracks like 'My Daddy's Farm', and all the big names (Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Joe Bataan) are represented alongside some more obscure groups like the TNT Band or Orchestra Harlow. Enjoy.
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