raúl monsalve y los forajidos: bichos

Olindo Records’ releases are usually covered here - from Waaju to Koichi Sakai -, as we deeply appreciate their invaluable work and obsessiveness in showcasing new acts that are culturally super-rich, converging people and art forms. Dropping tomorrow, their new project points the light to the Venezuelan bassist Raúl Monsalve, leading an all-star ensemble of musical trailblazers, los Forajidos, including the one and only Betsayda Machado, the singer Luzmira Zerpa and drummer Dave De Rose. With much of his life being dedicated to the study Afro-Venezuelan music, mentored by some of its greatest proponents among the percussionists of his home country, Raúl Monsalve is capable of encapsulate, at the same time, his strong interest in the sounds emanating from the fearless edges of jazz, rock, African and early electronic music.

Bichos - Spanish for ‘vermin’, ‘bugs’, ‘beasts’ but also used in Venezuela to refer to someone as a “nasty piece of work” -, is a superb eight-track LP that looks to the future of afrobeat, gritty Latin jazz and experimental electronic music, capturing the essence of both the African and indigenous roots of Venezuelan music. The album uses a variety of animals as themes to represent “a wide range of human qualities, like greed, hate, love and compassion, and their impact on Venezuelan and worldwide corruption & division, the strengths of friendship, family, collaboration, rebellion and survival”. Produced by Malcolm Catto (Heliocentrics, Quantic, Yussef Kamaal), and including a cast of friends from Venezuela, Paris and London, Bichos is a brilliant window into the rich musical seam of Venezuelan music, and an excellent look at how it might interconnect with wider musical parallels. Available in vinyl, courtesy of Olindo Records.