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Charanga Cakewalk
Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge
(Triloka/Artemis)
First Appeared in The Music Box, January 2005, Volume 12, #1
Written by John Metzger
Updated: Tue May 13, 2008,
12:00 PM CDT
Throughout his career, Michael Ramos has helped
artists such as Patty
Griffin, BoDeans, and John Mellencamp
to transform their standard, American roots music into
pop-inflected fare. With Charanga Cakewalk, his new
outfit, Ramos now has turned his
attention toward reinventing traditional Latin American sounds. Instead of playing them
straight, however, he colors them with a dizzying array of styles, allowing bits
of lounge, jazz, rock, pop, electronica, and dance flourishes to cycle through
his work on Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge. More often than not, the
results of his pursuits are startlingly hypnotic, and nowhere is he more successful than on
the rhythmic La Negra Celina and the otherworldly opening track Belleza.
Indeed, throughout Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge, Ramos continues his
tasteful exploration of the rhythmic grooves of two distinct eras, successfully
placing the organic essence and elegant ambience of the past within a modern
context. Like some strange cross-collaboration between Air, Los Lobos, and
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Charanga Cakewalk’s debut slithers along its percussive
path as radiant beams of accordion, horns, strings, and various keyboards color
its edges. Where many world music outings are stodgily esoteric, Loteria de
la Cumbia Lounge is a fascinating foray into a realm that is warm, inviting,
scintillating, and seductive. 
Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005, 2008
The Music Box
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