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I am going to be bold. I am going to describe
this Colombian band with three words: "The New Santana."
I told you I was going to be bold.
From time to time, I go off on a rant about
so-called bands that are nothing more than a few people trying
to each play their own thing, so the so-called band never achieves
a distinct sound. The "true" band, sounds as a whole,
like nothing else out there. Under my own definition, "Bloque"
("Block") is in essence a true band.
"Bloque" started out with members
of Colombian Carlos Vives' band. You might not have heard of
him, but just to put things in perspective, I might tell you
that he is not afraid of either Luis Miguel or Ricky Martin.
And now let's get to the meat of this.
"Bloque" rocks. They mix salsa and Colombian "Cumbia"
with rock, blues and reggae. The result is along the lines of
what Carlos Santana has been doing all these years. But by no
means are they a copy. The "cumbia" gives them a very
tasty sound, a little bit more exotic than the usual Carlos Santana
sound, and you don't even need to understand Spanish, since all
the lyrics are also presented in English.
The twelve tracks hide a few surprises.
For example, those that know their "Led Zeppelin" will
recognize the second track, "Nena," as an unaccredited
remake of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You." It starts almost
identically, and then it progresses into a catchy Latin beat.
"Sin Lágrimas" is the perfect goodbye song,
in which the singer repeats over and over that he is not going
to shed any tears over their separation.
I hate to go in a "this song is cool,
and that one rocks" mode, but it is something that is very
hard to resist. In my book "Bloque" has risen to the
status of "Gypsy Kings" and "Maná,"
and in my opinion they offer one of the finest Spanish recordings
of this year. |
