The Singles Jukebox

Apologies, your editor has been in a bit of a slump…

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Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: With “Caribbean Power,” Bomba Estereo remind me of a less art-damaged Gang Gang Dance in their approach to genre fluxuation. The song finds the Bogotan unit coaxing all potential fixations out of a combination of cumbia rhythms and dub and dancehall riddims. “Power” moves assuredly through minutes of rolling bass, lurching drums and Liliana Saumet’s toasting before finally arriving at a serene final minute of glimmering synths and distortion loops. Genre lines blur until they fade away — but luckily, it does not deny the music’s main purpose: to move asses as much as minds.
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Jonathan Bogart: A year past their splash, with maybe the least interesting song on the album, Bomba Estéreo’s virtues (thick, dazzling programming, heavy tropical beats and Liliana Saumet’s well-edged voice) are still in evidence, but both they and the current ñu-cumbia scene are so much more richer than this that I’m almost tempted to employ a Kinky comparison as a putdown.
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Anthony Easton: I’ve done some reading and listened to this a few times, and I love it but feel absurdly unqualified to tell you why. The speed, the unrelenting quality of the vocals, the tension that exists in the idea that they might not be able to keep up, that it goes faster and faster without collapsing: all of these things and perhaps more. 
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Alfred Soto: The keyboard whooshes and zooms keep the momentum going much better than the dancehall vocal.
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Rebecca A. Gowns: When I work out, I prefer to listen to bouncy music, music with a beat, in a bit of a minor key, with a lady half-talking-half-singing over it. This song makes it into that coveted spot on my workout playlist, nestled in between Missy Elliot, Yelle and Uffie.
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Brad Shoup: I could listen to Li Saumet pronounce the title in hundreds of iterations for the full length of the song. It’d sure beat that choppy squelch, which suggests nothing more than nu-metal.
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Iain Mew: I love this for as long as it’s a face-off between the skittering progress of robot spiders and the force of sing-talking. Once the two make up and align forces, it’s nowhere near as exciting.
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