PsychoTropical

Guayabo is Colombian slang for hungover, but it can also mean nostalgia for your homeland, the famous saudade in Portuguese, a feeling that this hybrid of Colombian, Chilean, Uruguayan and French members must be familiar with. The album Psychotropical was originally a crowdfunded project, for the very modest sum of €7,000, so you get a lot of bang for your Euro; drawn-out, percussive cumbia-based rhythms and punchy brass riffs combined with light rock and psychedelic guitar. Opening track ‘Folkloríptica’ is a busy mix of carnival rhythms including the zouk and puyaatlanticense, and there’s some enthusiastic guitar shredding on the celebratory ‘La Conjuntivitis’. ‘El Francer’ incorporates the swinging salsa of the Fania All-Stars to describe France, the good and the bad, through the eyes of a newly arrived immigrant. The album’s lead single ‘Fango’ combines cumbia and salsa Colombiana with light touches of guitars modulated to sound like Cuban tres, akin to a psychedelic highlife guitar sound that creates the psychotropical vibe of the album title. It’s a highly infectious six-and-a-half minutes, and Los Guayabo Brothers really let the grooves breathe, with the brass punctuating the pounding percussion while everyone involved is obviously having a ball, never being far from the party that no doubt gives them their fateful hangover.