Los Amigos Invisibles
Arepa 3000
Luaka Bop
What we have here, damas y caballeros, is an astounding pastiche of just about every type of sound that would make your toes involuntarily stand up and wiggle. The funk, the latin, the disco beat. The inexplicable furor of incomprehensible jungle. It’s hard not to think of the song “Fonnovo” as a lost P-Funk track – it’s got that Bootsy bass wobble and arrogant swagger that melts the ladies in their seats. “El Barro” is lifted directly from that song with Cher’s digital yodeling, but it stands head and shoulders above the hundreds of wanna-bes for its absolutely infectious idiocy. “Pipi” is a light summer twist, with a throat singer wandering in during the chorus. Oddly enought, Los Amigos Invisibles (hailing from Venezuela) have outdone many English-speaking musical forms, tossed in some spot-on Latin ones and generally come up with an album that sparkles with quality from beginning to end.
As outstanding as the music may be, most people will get only half the pictures, as the majority of lyrics are in Spanish. If you’re lucky enough to understand the language, you’ll bust your pants laughing at the lyrics of “Mujer Policia” (“Police Woman”) and the aforementioned “Barro,” which pits the DiscoDrome 2000 sound against the sad tale of eating too much chocolate and getting a pimple on your nose. Two tracks are clearly about masturbation (the funk-jam “Masturbation Session” and the Latin hyperkinetic merengue “El Baile del Sobón.” Lewd crude and always funny, Los Amigos Invisibles show some real wit, musically and lyricaly, for a knockout punch.
Which is not to say that only a Spanish-speaker will enjoy this record. This is music for dancing and sex, no doubt about it. Los Amigos Invisibles sing, play and act as if it’s still early in the Sexual Revolution and maybe you should lob a Molotov cocktail or two. If you’re at all into music for feet and production in the 99th percentile, you’d find it well-worth your time to check this out.
Narada, 4650 N. Port Washington Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53212-1063; http://www.narada.com
