by Sonido Gallo Negro (Glitterbeat! Records, CD, LP and digital)
Cumbia on congos and bongos, cha-cha-cha on cheesy Farfisa organs: Mexico City’s Sonido Gallo Negro (‘Black Rooster Sound’) has always delighted in sending its listeners into a sonic time-warp in which all is never what it seems. Do their wildly melodic, sci-fi sounds signify ‘now’? Do they signify ‘then’? And what meaning can be wrought from the Rooster’s dizzying rhythms? Mambo Cósmico, the nine-piece band’s third album, accentuates the musicians’ tendency towards its own singular Latino-futurism, and accomplishes quite a kick in the process.
