Creative Loafing,
Album Review
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THE DEAL: Infectious, colorful cumbia and champeta music from the Colombian Caribbean. DJ-based music you can dance to, mop the floors and anything else but sit still.
THE GOOD: Songs like "Bienvenidos," Mi Kolombia" and "El Majagual" all carry a feel-good, colorful, day-glo sound yet still reference and carry messages (drugs, war, cartels, corruption, hypocrisy, violence, poverty), though not especially in your face. Ditto that for final two cuts, "Ya Veras" and "Quien Es El Patron?" Non-Spanish speakers can still pick up the good-time vibe and not too much of the sadness of that war-torn nation, because the music is positive and celebratory rather than fatalistic and preachy.
THE BAD: The ballad "En Los Huesos" slows the pace a bit much, but only enough to lead into the frenetic rest of the recording. Songs like "Oye," while good, don't quite deliver the goods or live up to expectations, by now unrealistically high because of the magnificent earlier cuts. Yes, it's in Spanish but when has that bothered anyone?
THE VERDICT: If you have a job, you'll be moving and grooving while you work. If you don't have a job, it'll cheer you up. Not since the Golden Age of Reggae has such good music come from the Caribbean. Systema Solar is up there with other Colombian artists like Bomba Estereo ("Fuego"), Sidestepper and Chocquibtown, adding another notch to Colombia's international music contributions. Here is bright, ultra-vivid music for all ages.
10/19/10
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