He and Saumet split the album’s 13 songs into four sections themed around the classical elements, called Aire, Agua, Aire, and Fuego. He’d used the field recording process in the past for solo projects this time, it helped shape an organizing principle for Deja. He packed a tiny mic with him as he hiked through lush green national parks filled with birds - Colombia is home to more than 1,920 bird species, which is about 20 percent of the global total - and captured the atmosphere of areas like Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where ice-topped mountains meet the heat of the tropics. Many of the album’s found sounds came from field recordings that Simon Mejia, Bomba Estéreo’s co-founder and producer, picked up in different parts of Colombia. “Agua,” the first track, ends with the sweeping rush of a river a choir of birds serves as the backdrop for singer Li Saumet’s spoken word verses on “Ahora.” A surge of wind closes out “Mamo Manuel Nieves,” a track in which a shaman from the indigenous Arhuaco group describes our “duty to take care of Mother Nature.” Such details are reminders of everything there is to appreciate in the environment - and what we stand to lose. Maybe it’s a foreshadowing of what’s to come for Bomba Estéreo, a return to their roots from their go at bigger pop.It’s hard to make the overwhelming power and immense beauty found in nature seem subtle, but across Bomba Estéreo’s new album, Deja, examples of the earth’s grandeur gently peek out from the music. “Tengo adentro lo que quiero.” I have what I want within me. In fact, Saumet’s conviction does a lot of the emotional work on Amanecer, all the way through to the last moments: in a downtempo track reminiscent of Andean folktronica, Saumet expresses a return to the earth. blippy lazer gun sounds, rote EDM drops). At times, the sweetness can verge on cloying, cheesy even (i.e. That wider musical palette strips down about halfway through, on the meditative and aptly titled “Algo Está Cambiando”-“Something is Changing.” Pop songs like “To’ My Love” and “Mar (Lo Que Siento)” daydream about possible futures with a lover. Sounds like Colombian gaita flutes and shangaan electro-esque kalimbas flicker in and out of the more mainstream musical framework. They’re Caribbean coastal centers that maintain strong ties to the Black Atlantic and African Diaspora, which the band actually seem to explore more on Amanecer than on past records. And Saumet makes it a point to shout out her hometown of Santa Marta and surrounding cities like Barranquilla. The lyrics on “Voy”, like on much of the album, are simple but reflective, centering on love and partying, but also self-growth and positivity. There is a sort of breeziness that buoys this album. Carnival drums alternate with dubstep interludes, in a way that’s reminiscent of Dutch-Curaçaoan tropical rave band Kuenta i Tambú (K i T), though with less steam-rolling energy and more breathing room. On “ Fiesta”, by contrast, a Carnaval de Baranquilla parade comes crashing through. “Somos Dos”, a few tracks in, is essentially a sped-up kizomba number with a deep house vibe-kizomba being the slow, sensual Angolan popular music made for dancing really close. There’s a lot of variation within that transition as well. In that respect, Amanecer, meaning “dawn,” plays out like its title suggests. It feels a lot like a beachside party that begins late and goes early, moving from night to day, from clubbier dance tracks to poppier love songs. But ultimately, what propels the album is a new, more open sense of love. You can still hear the band’s particular brand of tropical bass though, which they call “tropical elegance” it lives in the tambor alegre rhythms, the occasional champeta-style guitar, the bass, of course. This time, the Caribbean and Afro-Colombian elements of Bomba’s musical identity serve more often as accents than anchors. “Global,” in this case, seems to have meant a combination of glossier production heftier, in-your-face poppiness and moments that can justifiably be labeled EDM. In various interviews, Bomba’s core duo-vocalist Liliana Saumet and keyboardist/bassist Simón Mejía-have talked about creating an album with more “global” appeal.
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