Various Artists
La Locura De Machuca 1975-1980
Label: Analog Africa
Genre: Freestyle / Nu Jazz / Funk / Afro
Availability
- LP x2 €29.99 Out of Stock
It was these obscure bands, who fused Colombian and African rhythms with the swirling organs and psychedelic guitars of underground rock, that fired Machuca's imagination. While the label made its money releasing popular hits by legends such as Alejandro Dura'n and Ani'bal Vela'squez, that money was poured back into a unique run of experimental releases by fringe artists such as La Banda Africana, King Somalie, Conjunto Barbacoa, and Abelar do Carbono, one of the godfathers of Champeta Criolla. When Machuca couldn't find groups to realise his particular vision, he simply created them himself. Drawing on a fearsome roster of musicians associated with the label, he assembled bands that lasted only as long as it took to record an album, and unleashed the results - complete with arrestingly unusual album covers - under a series of different names such as Samba Negra or El Grupo Folclórico. This unorthodox approach led his longtime recording engineer, Eduardo Dávila, to describe Machuca's productions as the "B-Movies of Colombian music." The story of Doctor Machuca and his eccentric exploits tells of one of Colombia's most atypical and peculiar record companies; a defining pillar of Afro-Caribbean psychedelia. His productions have come to represent the roots of Champeta and set the pedigree standards for Afro and Costeño avant-garde. The seventeen tracks on 'La Locura De Machuca', harvested from the darkest, strangest corners of the Discos Machuca catalogue, sound like little else recorded before or since.