SOL

Monsalve may be based in Paris but he learned his craft playing post-rock, avant-jazz-funk and Afro-Venezuelan music in Caracas and then mixing it with early electronics and sounds inspired by Africa. This mixture of the contemporary and ancestral is demonstrated on SOL, which continues Monsalve’s explorations from his previous acclaimed release, Bichos. ‘Como el Sol’ cooks up an exciting blend by referencing John Coltrane’s opening saxophone refrain from ‘Like Sonny’ and mixing it with Afro-Venezuelan marimba-like percussion. ‘Hamaca’ is a balmy tropical percussive interlude paving way for the all-out call-and-response Afrobeat assault of ‘Machete no Hace Piquito’, involving past and present Egypt 80 members combined with the tambor de mina Afro-Venezuelan drumming of Barlovento, and a punchy horn section led by Andres Vela. SOL finishes with ‘Calipso Time’, a cover of an early Fela Kuti track, ‘It’s Highlife Time’, a horn-led celebration of carnival and the positive vibes that come with it.