Today I am snacking on some choice rhythmic ruminations, courtesy of Brooklyn’s
Combo Chimbita. While home-based in a whitewashed hipster wasteland, the band transcends their surroundings with fealty to the global south. Their expressive, sharp-edged folk-funk combines traditional cumbia rhythms with futuristic psyche and soul with overtones of Afro-Latinx diaspora and lush post-punk.
Ahomale is their second LP as well as the name of the album’s central character, a vessel of ancient cosmic knowledge, who seeks to free humanity from the trappings of hubris and intolerance. The music here is infused with a sense of spiritual purpose and a mission to open the listener’s eyes to true wisdom and transcendent human consciousness. Things start out unassuming enough with the dusty western waltz and Latinx soul of “Ahomale” which give way to darkly symphonic, distorted, and surging guitar riffs, a great primer for what the band has in store for you on the rest of the album. The chilling quite-loud-quite dynamic established on the title track is further embellished on the cobweb swept, crypt diving salsa of “Revelacion” and the future-forward reggae crossfire of “Te Vi.” Moodier moments of force are offered up on the dripping dub upheavel of “Al Templo” and the trippy trap groove and deconstructed ska of “Santo Fuerte.” Escape the mundane with the guiding embrace of Combo Chimbita.
Grab a vinyl copy of the album from Anti- Records
here
