Niños con Bombas’ previous EP exploded out of my stereo with the rare violence of a fully-realized band. Mixing sounds and genres with careless abandon, the results were tight, pounding, and overwhelmingly powerful.
Of course, it’s always easier to showcase your brilliance on an EP – less songs means you can be more selective. Fortunately, Niños con Bombas proves conclusively that they’re no one-EP wonder with El Niño, 14 tracks of rhythmic and melodic twists. Lyrical twists, too, though unless you speak languages other than English you might not know it – the band is composed of a Chilean, a Brazilian and a German. They bring not only their musical influences to the band but their languages, Spanish, English, French, more…
Recorded and mixed by Thies Mynter at the band’s home base of Hamburg, Germany, El Niño stands not only as a solid collection of songs, but a monument to crystal-clear production; it gleams, like sharp steel instead of cheap chrome-coat. Fans of Flood, Reznor and similar obsessive producers would be well-served to check this out. Those who think that Rage Against The Machine and 311 are awesome hybrids should chuck their store-bought concepts and pick up a copy of this. “Anestesia,” the first track on here will have you floored in no time. Without a doubt, Niños con Bombas is one of the most daring and original bands I’ve heard in a long, long time. Grita!, P.O. Box 1216, Murray Hill Station, New York, NY 10156; http://www.grita.com