Sue Miller: is transported back to the seafront cafes of Cuba's Malecon, as she listens to Los Autenticos from new label Ghetto Lounge. A rough recording that nevertheless has charm and energy and the authentic sound of Havana's Trova street musicians……
If you like your CDs polished, in tune and well recorded don't get this album as it is obviously low budget in production terms…..but despite the roughness you do hear the personalities of the band coming through on this very live recording, almost as if they were playing to you directly in a café on the Malecón seafront.
The older singers Reinaldo López and Diosdado 'Abuelo' Esquível have the tobacco-tinged 'lived in' voices that send tingles down your spine - only in Cuba do the old guys sing like this! If you've been to Cuba this will take you back to sitting in cafes on the Malecon or in Habana Vieja accompanied by hotel bands singing bolero and son.
The outdoors feel is enhanced by the intro and outro tracks featuring the guitar against the sound of the waves on the Malecón (very Il Postino). The tracks I liked best were the bolero 'Cuando Estas Lejos' sung passionately by the older singers and 'El Cutungo' and 'Bambara Quiti' for the knees up tracks. So all in all a rough, dissonant but charming recording with some characterful older male vocals crackling against the sun-soaked guitar and tres sounds.
Malecón from Los Autenticos is released on Ghetto Lounge and distributed through Honest Jon's and features London based Japanese Bongo player, dj and music producer Koichi Sakai.
