Actitud Calle

With a Banksy-style graphic on the cover, a photo from the commemorative marchofthe 40th anniversary of the 1968 student massacre in Tlatelolco, and images of US dollars in Mexican colours in the liner notes, Los de Abajo don't leave any doubt as to their politics. The lyrics to the title-track reference iconic polemicists such as Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, Pancho Villa and Che Guevara while asserting their music is ‘from Argentina to the world’. As ever Los de Abajo, now a ten-piece, are full of musical ideas, progressive ideologies and enough (refried) beans to wake up even a complacent Cameron-voting young Tory. Using festive, beat-driven music – mainly ska and rock, but with digressions into reggae, salsa and rap – this Mexico City collective want to press home a pan-Latino, anti-establishment message. Unlike their clear role models – the Specials, Madness, Mano Negra – Los de Abajo rarely pause for an agit-prop chant, nor deliver ballads that might actually make a message clear. Some tracks come to the fore as exceptionally well-wrought – ‘Fiesta’ is a great opening blast that Neville Staples would have been proud of. ‘Atrapao,’ ‘Teresa’ and ‘Nasdrovia’ are funky Balkan experiments – though on a few songs Odisea Valenzuela's vocals are Shakira-lite pop, and rhythms get lost in a percussive mush. Being politically naive doesn't matter much, but Los de Abajo are occasionally musically naive too, and that's when their strengths – raw energy, quality musicianship, a willingness to experiment – get lost in the mix. Still, few Latin American bands are more interesting and this latest disc repays repeated listens.