Album Reviews / Pop
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Sex and American funk are this Venezuelan sextet’s obsessions, and they are fused in a cheeky U.S. debut album filled with wacky disco references and quasi-pornographic lyrics. There’s also the influence of the lounge revival, which can be felt in velvety tracks like “Mango Cool” and the bossa nova instrumental “Las Lycras del Avila.” But half the record goes back to the ‘70s for a brutal disco-funk attack that livens things up.
Los Amigos mock a lifetime spent listening to English lyrics, as in the opening “Guelcome,” in which a sultry-sounding hostess opens the festivities with calculated broken English. It’s that ability to incorporate Anglo influences (verbal and musical) into the Latin vernacular that makes this record so fresh and exciting. (Los Amigos play at JC Fandango in Anaheim on Sunday, the House of Blues on Monday and Spaceland on Tuesday.)
Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).
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