Spanish Dogs

It’s surprising that this brassy nine-piece outfit hails from Madrid, as from the opening ‘Batanga Caballero’ (underlined later by ‘Cocacho Mambo’), they play and sing with the fire of a hardened Afro-Cuban outfit like Orquesta Akokán. ‘Spanish Dog’, taken at a more laid-back pace, albeit with a vibrant trombone break, could be twice its four-minute length and no worse for it. ‘Darling’, with added strings, also slows things down, featuring an impassioned vocal reminiscent of a pleading James Brown. The turbo-charged ‘You Better Watch Out’ strays deftly into Sam & Dave territory, while ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’ is an updated Spanglish boogaloo rendition of the King Cole Trio’s track of the same name. Variety is the spice of this second album then, but, El Combo Batanga takes all these genres in their stride, sounding equally accomplished playing son, timba, funk, boogaloo and Latin soul. The band’s rhythm section has played together for years, initially as Los Chocolatiers, and it certainly shows. Get me a plane ticket to Madrid!