¡SUÉNALO!

September 2, 2014 9:06 PM

This a little story 'bout this one time, we got booked to play a show, right? It was down in the Keys, we wuz makin' our way - and we ran into the Tiki Bar

“Funk cruises through the Caribbean picking up Afro sounds from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Reggae meets rock in a head-on collision. Jazz and electro hook up for a sidewalk makeout session. Hip-hop seems to hum from the very pavement, and R&B drifts in on the night wind. Suenalo reaches to far-flung corners and retrieves all these, takes them and mashing them together, marrying them—disparate players melded into a somehow harmonious blend.

"305" (Official Clean Version)
Miami: Best Latin Rock Band 2005

Every year the Florida frontier becomes more polyglot. About the only South Americans who haven't made a move on these parts are the Bolivians, the Guyanans, and the Surinamese. They're also about the only ones not representin' for Suenalo, the source of Miami's best new spin on rock, Latin or otherwise, since Nil Lara first whipped out his son-ified electric cuatro.

"Tripeo"
Suénalo and the only in Miami sound

Suénalo, which bills itself as an “Afro-Latin-baby-makin’-descarga-funk band,” embraces its members’ variety of backgrounds, and it prides itself on the constant evolution of its sound. The new music leans harder on funk than previous albums, for example. But what may come afterwards will happen as organically as everything else the band has recorded.
“We grew up on different music, and our sound shifts this way and that way. But when you put us all together, we definitely have a tight jam,” says De Jesus. “It just works.”

"Elegua"
at last.fm.

posted by the man of twists and turns (5 comments total)

I WAS THERE FOR THIS SHOW THIS STORY THIS LIFE.

2006? Oh my google IT WAS A BLAST in Key West.



Still here, still loving it, still catching Suenalo at Green Parrot, dancing in the streets with Will Soto and all the usual suspects. Just grown-up now and leaving the Tiki Bar fun to the new set. Great post, the man of twists and turns.
posted by Mike Mongo at 9:59 PM on September 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

These guys have their shit together. Their shit is decidedly not apart. Great listen and now I have another set of albums to hunt down.
posted by delfin at 6:40 AM on September 3, 2014

now I have another set of albums to hunt down
CD Baby Store, with previews of tracks

Mike, I'll do Red Elvises next?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:37 AM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

These guys would make a great double bill with Ozomatli.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:57 AM on September 3, 2014

I only have to suggest that visitors check out Suenalo once. After that, they bring a hundred friends.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:57 PM on September 3, 2014