Despegue

I never thought I'd end up having to reconsider La Chiva Gantiva's debut album as ‘polite’. This is a band I compared to The Clash and, at the time, 2014's Vivo sounded like a powerful brew of kick-ass cumbia, full-on funk and heavy rock guitar. But, in retrospect, this new one demonstrates that the band were only warming up. Maybe it's the input of producers Ivan Benavides and Vincent Poujol, but Despegue has a punchier, bigger sound that makes it easy to imagine what a powerhouse this multicultural outfit (centred on three Colombian percussionists alongside Vietnamese, Chilean and Belgian musicians) must be live.

There is a little less light and shade here. The songs themselves don't seem quite as inventive now that the band have shifted their focus to crowd-pleasing anthems and impassioned raps while neglecting their quirkier, more offbeat side. But still, there's no question that epic rock meets hip-hop tracks such as ‘Cuero’ (which features the rapper Speech from the group Arrested Development) hit the target that so many similar fusion bands of this nature fall short of, due to lacking the heft and musical direction. It's good to know that, on evidence of this album, La Chiva Gantiva are still out there, delivering the goods.