La Candela del Río

Every decade has its new diaspora, inevitably spawning a new music that speaks to roots and the severing of them. The implosion of Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chávez has led to a tremendous, and under-reported, exodus from that country. Paris-based Venezuelan quartet Insólito UniVerso take the joroposllaneros, merengues, waltzes and African rhythms of their home country and deconstruct them through jazz inflections, infusions of drone and Indian elements, and a bossa nova airiness. The result is a beguiling almost ambient sound that occasionally turns dance-friendly, as on ‘Vuelve’, a cheeky, tongue-twister of a song. ‘Pájaro’ is a joyous quasi-psychedelic riff of a merengue caraqueño (merengue from Caracas). The overall mood though, contrary to whatever clichés might communicate about the tropical Caribbean nation, is pensive, melancholy and mysterious. Some of the phrases crescendo towards a climax that never comes. The tempo is frequently turned down to whale-heart. The electronic pulses and echoey guitars smack of goth.

A thoughtful, unsettling, sometimes very beautiful album, La Candela del Río is as adrift and mixed-up as its homeland; for guts and ambition, you have to admire such a genuinely original debut.