Can't say I found this very interesting to sit through. There's not anything clearly and objectively wrong with this 13 track load of latin funk material, but I feel like there's a distinct absence of personality to these tracks. There's little in the way of memorable melodies or grooves here. Each track tends to consist of a simple, repeated groove and a couple simple horn melodies and I'm getting bored by these tracks pretty quick, even though they're so short. There's just a lack of any really interesting developments or progressions. I'm not too keen on the sound of this record either. The percussion is fine and so are the horns, but the bass sounds rather limp and the keyboards tend to be more garish than evocative.
The nadir of the record comes at track number 7, "Barretta". This track exhibits everything I don't like about this album very, very strongly and I find it downright annoying to listen to.
It's not that I have anything against funk or latin music as such. Sometimes, quite to the contrary. It's just that Brownout somehow manages to make this sound very superficial and garish to my ears and I don't like it at all.
It's not bad music, but I don't really get the 'selling point' of this particular disc either.
4/10. Doesn't move me. Occasionally annoys me. Somewhat repetitive and unimaginative.
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