Club Coco

Compiled by Mexican DJ Coco María, this collection shows off a glorious vision for contemporary Latin American music. Coco, currently based in Amsterdam after spells in London and Berlin, has opted for constant percussive grooves, woozy melodies, raw vocals and a sense of nostalgia in the air; after her years away it feels like an imagined ideal of the Latin America she wants to return to. Nico Mauskovic (of Mauskovic Dance Band) starts things off with ‘A Big Brain’, straight-up Latin funk in the vein of Afro-Colombian supergroup Wganda Kenya; it’s only usurped in the heaviness stakes by La Redada’s Latin-psych take on João Donato’s ‘Cala Boca Menino’, here as ‘Calla Boca’ and filled with filthy guitar licks and rattling percussion. Inventive variations on cumbia come from the always-dependable Meridian Brothers, Malphino, Frente Cumbiero and Romperayo, while La Perla hit hard with their anti-violence anthem ‘Guayabo’ and Graham Mushnik even gets into some cocktail lounge grooves, which sometimes give this record the air of an exotica release. Detours into Réunionese sega and raga-cumbia finish offer a particular and expertly-curated journey into a Latin American alternative-universe called Club Coco.