Oye mi cumbia

Last night at the Hackney Empire, Barbican's Blaze Festival kicked off with more venom than Mark Van Bommel the other day. I'd heard of the first act, Céu, but not much of her music. Turns out that while she's fucking beautiful, her music is exactly the kind of inoffensive, Starbucks-endorsed mix of jazz and samba that caters to a demographic that I'd rather die of dysentery than become a part of. Her vocals were gorgeous -  "throaty" yet smooth, expressive but without any of the melismatic warbling you sometimes get with overeager singers - but while people seemed to dig her (did  I mention she was insanely beautiful?), the songs just weren't up to much. That said, there was a killer accordion (!) solo at some point and the DJ managed to fill the gaps left by the sparse set-up (vocals, bass, drums, keys) with some nice loops and vocal samples. 

But I was mainly there to see fellow Bogotános Bomba Estéreo, and man, if  I had needed any more incentive to leave England and go to Colombia, I got it. They were incredible. There were some almost shoegaze-y feedback orgies early on which had me a bit worried, but after three songs they got into their groove and down to business. Liliana Saumet, dressed a bit like an ethnic Skins extra, wasn't half the dancer Céu was, but a lot more fun to watch once she'd shaken off initial nerves. I didn't know any of their music before last night, and having listened to their last album, "Blow Up" a few times, I have to say it doesn't come close to conveying just how fucking punchy and fiery they are live. The drummer was an absolute beast, building crescendos up for what seemed like ages, then dropped a beat bigger than the steaks on the Uruguayan national team's BBQ. On record, the fusion of cumbia and champeta, laptop beats, clean, angular guitar lines and Liliana's rhymes about consumerism and racial politics sounds somewhat more sterile, but last night every bass line hit the spot. The crowd were a pretty even mix of expat Colombians and Brazilians, hipsters asserting their cosmopolitan credentials (it was  East London after all) and middle-aged white dudes in horrific flower shirts from Surrey, but by the end of the set they were all dancing down the front, animating their friends to join them, fellating each other (ok, maybe not the last bit, but there was some pretty heavy petting going on). 

Now to get that teaching job in Bogotá and emigrate... I wish.

Good band alert - Young Legionnaire

So I've been listening to the great and greatly missed I Was A Cub Scout a bit recently, and wondered what had become of them. Then I remembered that the drummer had, apart from playing drums for La Roux, played a gig with Friendship at the Old Blue Last a couple of months back, with his new band. I also remembered that new band being very good that night (definitely better than Friendship), despite it being their first or second show or something, and that they didn't even have a Myspace at a time. So today, I had a browse and a click and, sha-zam, not only do they have a Myspace, they've also got a 7" coming out next month. Back of the net.

The A-side, "Colossus", is a lovely, grungey bit of alternative rock that's emo in a manly, Rival Schools kinda way. The guitars are meaty and you can sort of guess it's the 100% sick William Bowerman (who's also in the awesome instrumental math-rock-with-testicles band Brontide) on drums - not because it's showy, double-bass-y drumming, but because it's interesting, misleading and off-message in all the right places.

But for me it's the B-side, "Iron Dream", that makes this release. It starts with a great tricky riff, and is more straightforward and driving than "Colossus". The vocals kind of remind me of The Thermals, and the whole thing has the tone and feel of the recent batch of more-than-solid bands who listen to stuff like Mclusky and Superchunk rather than Black Tambourine. I never really got Yourcodenameis:Milo, but considering it was this lot's singer and bassist's old project, I might have to check them out again. But only after I've played these two songs to death.