The Bottom Line
Here's a real treat for salsa dura fans. La Excelencia's sophomore album, Mi Tumbao Social bundles all the energy and innovation that makes good salsa so irresistable into one musically bright, tight package. Hard-driving, raw, rhythmic and contemporary, this album is sure to be one of the highlights of 2009.
Pros
- Salsa dura from New York that reminds you why you fell in love with salsa
Cons
- None
Description
- 11 tracks of innovative New York style salsa dura
- All new tracks most of which were written by Julian Silva
- Released January 2009 by Handle With Care
Guide Review - Review: La Excelencia - 'Mi Tumbao Social'
Now New York’s La Excelencia is back with their sophomore album Mi Tumbao Social. After the recent trend of Latin music artists rehashing older material and releasing compilations, I turned up the volume and felt both eager and fearful. Could they do it again? Would they?
La Excelencia sure could and did. Mi Tumbao Social is hard driving, raw and innovative, with pounding rhythms, lyrics that tell a contemporary story sung by 2 wonderful soneros and so hot that you can work up a sweat just sitting in a chair and listening to this album.
The album offers all new tracks, most with music and lyrics by La Excelencia co-founders Julian Silva (music) and Jose Vazquez-Cofresi (lyrics). There’s a nice variation in dance tempos to the tracks while the vocals on “Caminando” are glorious. “American Sueno” tells an immigrant’s story to a sensuous rhythm and “Duelo De Bongo” is a masterpiece of percussion.
I’ve seen La Excelencia’s music compared to early Fania but there’s nothing retro or derivative about this group. The similarity is in contemporary musical and thematic sensibility translated to a gritty, intrepid and always danceable salsa.