Strut (label)
30 July 2012 (released)
30 July 2012
You can rely on Hugo Mendes and Frankie Francis to turn up the best of Tropical and this collection contains some of the best that they have found.
You get around 70 minutes of music from South America, Central America, Africa and even Sweden and most of it will leave you with sore hips and a big smile – just irresistible rhythms.
The kick off by Lord Shorty demonstrating the rudiments of Soca sets a groove thing going and it just doesn’t let up.
The most noticeable element is timbales, congas and drums and the voices, rarely to the fore but always there as a hat to hand the music on. That and the variety of hot rhythms as the different bands feature Soca, Cadence Soukous or even afro-beat but all featuring an infectious groove.
Standout numbers by Midnight Groovers and Owiny Sigoma Band are brilliantly supported by Grupo Canalon and Luis Kalaff y Sus Alegres Dominicanos.
Some of the recordings are rough but they all have a ‘live’ feel and carry some powerful sounds at the listener. In the same way, some of the flow from one track to another maybe doesn’t make sense but the result is still a hip swinging and sweaty affair (if you are doing it right) and by the end of the album I just wanted to go back and start again.
