Cumbia sets the foundations for Baile Bucanero yet the latest venture from Ondatrópica comes spiced with salsa, champeta, calypso, reggae, afrobeat, dancehall and a melancholy closing ballad. The multi-generational music collective headed by Will Holland and Mario Galeano, outline the musical landscape of Colombia. From ‘De Mar a Mar’ to ‘Bogota’… it’s a tapestry of sounds that spans the length of it’s coastlines as well as taking in the traditional sounds of it’s capital and inland regions too. The studio locations point to the inspiration behind the album. It was recorded in two places: Bogotá and Isla De Providencia… world’s apart in most respects yet symbolising a synthesis of influences and the meeting point for around 35 musicians to come together.
An abiding nostalgia and sense of place is supplemented by banal subject matter exploring numerous angles of Colombian culture. Some of the tracks take on their own structure, letting the music tell the story by developing with gradual additions of sassy brass and overlapping riffs with the vocals taking a backseat and arriving in repeated refrains. It’s a vivid picture of the transcontinental country and one not to be ignored if the variants of Colombian music (and Latin American music in general) do much to tickle your fancy.
In the words of Will and Mario: “The premise of the second album was to record in Bogota and Old Providence Island (Isla de Providencia). Two contrasting locations, but united by their reputation as musically creative hubs – Bogota, with its subversive underground expressing an active, punky, DIY mentality and Providence reinterpreting and updating a Colombian national identity through a proud renaissance of regional folklore coupled with a fervor for dancehall and reggae sounds. Rather than separate the stylistic Anglo-, French- and Spanish-Caribbean influences, our goal was to explore the common ground and the ways in which these different styles synthesise”
Baile Bucanero is available to download or on vinyl from Soundway Records.