New World Adds: Bomba Estero, Daymé Arocena
Bomba Estereo - Amanecer: Okay, so I thought I submitted this from the summer but forgot. This one you may have heard on the radio waves since it’s super catchy, upbeat, and overall far more clubby than their prior stuff. I think they’ve been sampled by some top 40 stuff or maybe just very similar vibes because this album was not produced by them unlike prior albums. While it definitely makes the album more popular, the flowing, charged, cumbia-driven uniqueness that makes them great is suffocated in much of the album by high gloss layers of production. Best example of this feeling is on the track “Fiesta” where the solid versus are drowned out by that annoying big EDM-dj-rework-of-2012-Diplo sound. That said it’s not a bad album. IAN
Recommended Tracks: “Amancer”, “Algo Esta Cambiando”, and I guess I should put “Fiesta” and “Soy Yo”
Daymé Arocena - Nueva Era: Coming in at a distant corner of the spectrum from Amanecer is this Afro-Cuban Jazz(?) artist’s debut album. Versus the catchy clubby Bomba Estereo release, Arocena draws out the build of her songs into some beautiful grooves. These are the tunes you listen to in front of the Costco faux-fireplace space heater when you come in from the frigid desolate wastes when you’re home for winter break to remind yourself that there’s life and warmth in the world. IAN