Los Miticos Del Ritmo (Soundway, 2012)
Some of the best cumbiana and vallenato musicians from Cali were assembled by British producer Will ‘Quantic’ Holland’s to perform fiery instrumental ‘house party’ cumbias. The result is this new album titled Los Miticos Del Ritmo.
The cumbias in the album are mostly new pieces composed by Holland and some of the musicians who participated in the sessions, as well as covers of Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop’, The Abyssinians’ reggae classic ‘Satta Massagana’ and Gildardo Montoya’s ‘Fabiola’.
The tracks are loaded with potent Afro-Colombian percussion and feature clarinet, accordion and saxophone solos. Los Miticos Del Ritmo was meant to emulate the feel of tropical recordings made in Colombia and the Caribbean in the 1960s. The album is completely analog and features an original screen-printed front cover designed by the London based artist Lewis Heriz.
‘The idea of the record was to record something that sounded like a lost cumbia classic,’ said Will in a recent interview with Soundway ‘Like something dug out of a Barranquilla basement after decades of humidity and dust. In a modern climate of mashups and sampling, it seemed refreshing to record something with musicians doing covers and approaching new ideas for cumbia, rather than rehashing old tricks.’
The album was recorded exclusively on 4 track tape, using a process of overdubs and tape transfers to record multiple sessions at different times with different musicians.
Will ‘Quantic’ Holland is one of the UK’s best known producers. He moved to Cali (Colombia), where he runs a recording studio called Sonido del Valle. Los Miticos del Ritmo is a group of 7 studio musicians put together by ‘Quantic’. The lineup includes Will Holland on accordion, Wilfredo Peña on clarinet and saxophone, Ancer Barrios Rada ( grandson of the famed Colombian accordionist Francisco Pacho Rada ) on percussion, Jorge Luis Hoyos on percussion, Humberto Pernett on percussion, and Combo Barbaro’s Freddy Colorado on percussion and Fernando Silva on bass.
Los Miticos Del Ritmo is an impassioned Colombian cumbia dance album with a killer rhythm section.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
