ALBUM REVIEW: Y La Bamba creates a latin folk art punk universe on "Entre Los Dos"

Y La Bamba creates a latin folk art punk universe on "Entre Los Dos"

When you dip your toe into Y La Bamba's aka Luz Elena Mendoza latest foray "Entre Los Dos" on the track Gabriel you might expect the shifting conga-esque latin rhythms though the jammy drumming and Mendoza's filtered vox feels more in line with art punk flavors but by the second (and) title track Entre Los Dos you might feel her San Francisco roots hybridized with her Michoacan Mexican ancestry and broken bits of sad core twist into an alt folk diatribe. The sometimes double over-modulated vox, as whistles feel like images from another time, feels so cinematic and artful like radio transmissions through space. The direct flow into Rios Sueltos eq'd into an even more alien vibe quietly blows your mind and makes your bones move and despite the fact that I don't speak the language I am gladly mimicking the singing because I have to and then suddenly, amid dissonant piano and lilting avant garde domesticated jazz fused folk, I can understand the words on the Twilight Zoned eyebrow raising Octavio. The full step latin jumpstep gleeful rock filtered Soñadora is absolutely divine while still pushing art rockish double lead glam buttons as well, the rhythm section is amazing and spacey. Las Platicas has vox so upfront as to feel like forceful shouts, whispers in one's ears, there is such an urban, neighborhood rap feel here, funky and rootsy. The mirrored stacked singing, this time boy girl or girl boy sound so inviting. It is a Las Platicas parade. The final destination of this musical vacation is Los Gritos pushing and pulling time signatures against each other with guitars dancing around bass lines and Mendoza rapid fire vox feeling almost phased. It is interplanetary. In the end, "Entre Los Dos" is it's own multicolored universe and from start to finish I am transfixed and floating away. 

-
Robb Donker