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Bomba Estéreo

From Colombia

Where cumbia meets electronic - and travels even further
Some things are meant to go together. Cheese and chutney, for example, or gin and Vermouth. And, from where we're listening, cumbia and electronica make rather natural bedfellows. This meeting between an ages-old traditional folk music and the 21st century has rather dominated the bass-bins of Colombian clubs in recent years, its most celebrated practitioners being Bomba Estereo. But this Bogota outfit go well beyond the 'electro cumbia' tag, their bass-heavy sound also incorporating hip-hop, dub, dancehall and flipped-out psychedelia. Their trump card is surely fast-tongued frontwoman Liliana Saumet, a fireball of energy and charisma who could get a party started in a funeral parlour. And while purists might tut at their updating of traditional styles, the band themselves know the value of this approach in snagging the ears of the younger generation. "It's like when you try to get kids to eat their vegetables," they laugh. "You have to make them tasty!"

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

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