Roberto Lopez - Criollo Electrik (2017)

It’s not up there in the head. It’s down there, in the heart, or lower in the gut, or lower still, that’s it, now you’re getting the idea. If music is a language, forget Rock en Español, Lopez has conjured up his own Esperanto — a deconstruction of influence to create something absolutely new. He’s not interested in tumbling down any statues, he’s building a new one right next to them.

Cause this isn’t fusion, nothing so vainglorious as that. This is sunlight filtering through Colombian palms making patterns on some sticky Canadian sugar shack where the wolves are at the door and you gotta run like hell. Roberto Lopez is a bell-ringing dream of tomorrow, but still with the stains of Bogotà bus floors on his Doc Martens, and some heavy metal leather vested hands-up sweaty mess screaming his way to being a hero. You want to mix it up more? Get a Brazilian to play your Colombian rhythms, an African to be your rock drummer. And just when you think you’ve pinned down that image, here comes some long-limbed Nigerian princess shaking her disco booty at you and wagging her finger cause you’ve been naughty, you’ve been using that fusion word, you been keeping it all in your head like some marble statue when the universe is contained down there, and we don’t have any more time for that bullshit. Clik play now!

Tracklist:

01. Roberto Lopez - Maria La Baja
02. Roberto Lopez - Oye Candelaria
03. Roberto Lopez - Cumbiero
04. Roberto Lopez - Calentao
05. Roberto Lopez - Las Aguas
06. Roberto Lopez - Ague
07. Roberto Lopez - Libertad
08. Roberto Lopez - Chambacu
09. Roberto Lopez - Hay Pescao?
10. Roberto Lopez - Baila
11. Roberto Lopez - Guayabita
12. Roberto Lopez - Quiebra-Canto