Street Signs
It is time for a revolution.
It is time for another Ozomatli album.
It is time for Street Signs
The last time Los Angeles' beloved Afro-Latin-and-beyond style-mashers released an album, was September 11, 2001. While most bands in the United States responded to the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by cancelling their concerts, Ozomatli - a multi-racial crew who have never been shy about their commitment to social justice, progressive politics, and anti-war convictions - decided to keep their dates and keep playing.
'Music is the key to every culture, the beginning of an understanding,' says the band's trumpet player and co-vocalist Asdru Sierra. 'September 11 really pushed us to delve into North African and Arab music. For us, music is a language far more universal than politics.'
Since then, the band have released the Coming Up EP for their US label Concord (available in UK on import or via www.ozomatli.com), which gave fans a clue as to what awaited them in Street Signs. That six-track EP earned them the Billboard Magazine Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album of 2004.
Street Signs - the band's first full-length studio album in three years and their debut on Real World Records - bears this new Middle Eastern influence out in typical Ozo style, by mixing it into their trademark blend of hip-hop and Latin styles. When the band's original MC Chali 2na (now of Jurassic 5) returns to take centre stage on 'Who's To Blame,' he drops rhymes about 'presidential motorcades' and 'Yakuza tattoos' over a reedy Gnawa trance session complete with tablas and hand-claps. 'Believe,' the album's uplifting opener that looks for hope in destruction, features Veteran Moroccan sintir master Hassan Hakmoun, who's joined by the acclaimed French-Jewish gypsy violinists Les Yeux Noir and The Prague Symphony.
The band invited Eddie Palmieri, the legendary Latin jazz and salsa pianist, to play on 'Nadie Te Tira,' where his gorgeous solo piano lines set off a round of horn-blasted salsa fusion. Along with Palmieri, Hakmoun, Les Yeux Noir, Chali 2na, and the Prague Symphony, their original DJ, Cut Chemist, also joins Ozomatli on 'Dejame en Paz'. There's also the band's new MC Jabu (formerly of 4th Avenue Jones) and guest drummer, Mario Calire (formerly of The Wallflowers).
Throw in a mixologist who's worked with everyone from Justin Timberlake and N.E.R.D. to Michael Jackson and Prince (Serben Ghenea), and engineers who've collaborated with the likes of Beck, Santana, Jack Johnson, and Cypress Hill (Robert Carranza and Anton Pukshansky), and you get what is easily the band's most vibrant and ambitious project to date.
'After eight years of being together,' explains tenor saxophonist Ulises Bella, 'our overall comfort level with ourselves and with our playing has really grown. The songs venture off to a lot of different areas. That's the beauty of Ozomatli, being able to do things really differently than everyone else.'
Street Signs is both a mature testament to the band's nearly decade-long evolution and a fresh, dance floor-rocking reminder of their commitment to creating original music in the face of industry conservatism. 'Saturday Night' is a 'dip-dive-socialize' hip-hop block party. 'Love & Hope' is an anthem waiting to happen with its English-language mix of Arabic strings and new-school Chicano funk-rock. 'Dejame En Paz' is a papi chulo merengue fest that boils over into the mosh pit. The band even re-mixes itself (with the help of Ghenea and John Hanes) on 'Ya Viene El Sol,' turning its soaring concert sing-a-long into a broken-beat electro cut-up of dancehall, batucada, and jarocho.
'Since we started, our perspectives have changed as our lives have changed,' says Bella. 'We just trust each other more now. Everyone gives everyone the space we all need. This band did not start, at all, to get a record deal. It started out of love for the music we made, and that's exactly where we still are.'
'The best live band in the world' Time Out
Reviews
Ozomatli are one of the most purely exciting live bands on the planet - purveyors of cross-cultural party rhythms, who as often as not unplug their instruments and jam out on the streets for an encore. Somehow though, they've never quite managed to translate all this buzz and bustle onto disc. Until now that is. "Street Signs" finds the LA globalist/latin/hip hop crew toying with Middle Eastern/Arabic rhythms (their righteous response to post 9/11 bigotry) alongside their usual tropical shakedown. The opening, "Believe" is a ferocious mix of Middle Eastern strings and latino funk-rock, "Who's To Blame" has a swirling snake-charmer melody alonside a socially conscious rap, the Beatle Bob remix of "Ya Viene El Sol" really captures the out of control, good-time spirit of their live shows, whilst "Who Discovered America" is an immigrant's ode to the promised land with a bitter sting in its tail. For the first time they've been given a production that does them justice - punchy, bright and bass heavy. Rarely has the revolutionary spirit sounded so butt-shakingly funky!
Gnawa, Balkan Gypsy and Eddie Palmieri meet Latin-hop fire
Los Angelinos Ozomatli are one of the world's greatest bands, a 21st century Los Lobos, masters of the whole range of Latin styles and rhythms, but with a hip-hop sensibility thrown in... It's an album that searches for hope amid the destruction that's going on around us. To create more light, they've tossed an explosive bundle of Middle Eastern and Balkan musical idioms onto their Latin hip-hop fire. They kick off with the triumph that is "Believe": a totally engaging, hip-smacking blend of Balkan Gypsy, Latin Hip-Rock, Les Yeux Noir and the Forte Music City Of Prague Orchestra, with Hassan Hakmoun on backing vocals.
But the pace and the electric delights do not slacken. Amongst this irresistible tour de force, you'll find the hip-hop chaabi of "Who's To Blame" with Jurassic 5's MC Cahli 2na in full philosophical flow; the Chicano rock of the love/hate song 'America' and a heart melting Mexican beats balad, 'Santiago', with Los Lobos' David Hildago on guitar. And when legendary pianist, Eddie Palmieri joins them in the orgiastic salsa of 'Nadie Te Tira', you know this has to be one of the best albums of 2004.
album review
In this age of disillusioning politics, my vote goes to the Ozomatli street party. There's no other group that can mix the incongruent ingredients of lyrical defiance, global dance beats, hip-hop attitude and pop hooks so convincingly and explosively.
On their third full-length album to date, the outspoken Los Angelianos have not only expressed their political convictions in text, but have also implied them in their music, marrying their characteristic hard-edged Latino beats for the first time with North African and Arab music. The result is Ozomatli's lushest album to date.
There's a sea of melancholic strings, deep enough to drown in, a tide of tumbling rhythms, and sharp samples that sit at odd angles to create a dizzying tension. Ozomatli seem to have cracked that secret to merging the simple with the sophisticated. Their choruses are charming sing-along rhymes that will repeat themselves endlessly in your head after only one listening. The lyrics are rallying cries to save the world and guard hope, and the musical canvas is rich and luscious and drips with deft mixology.
To perfect their clever craftmanship, the multi-skilled Ozomatli combo has invited a host of stellar guests. Eddie Palmieri works his piano on "Nadie Te Tira", Jurassic 5 MC Chali 2na adds his bass-heavy rapping to the trancy gnawa backing of "Who's to Blame", and Moroccan master musician Hassan Hakmoun graces the elevating "Believe" with his instrumental skills. It's a feast for the ears and a party for the feet.
Reviewer: Katharina Lobeck
Buy It While The Weather's Hot!
Ozomatli have broadened their palatte significantly on their third album 'Street Signs'. Having made their name with the latino funk party vibe of their first (self-titiled) album, and especially Cut Chemist's anthemic 'suite' remix, they now take on a far wider range of world music sources, all sliced and diced in their own inimitable style to create a rich boullabaise. The party anthems are still here, 'Love and Hope' is as purely positive as the title suggests, and the hip hop cuts still cut it - on 'Street Signs' and 'Saturday Night' they make some of the strongest live hip hop this side of the Roots. Where this album departs from the last two is the increasing concentration on sounds and rhythms from other continents, not just sudamerica....
All fans of Manu Chao should now be picking this up, as well as fans of latin dance - and if you don't fall into one or both of those groups then buy it anyway while the weather's still hot, you won't be disappointed papichulo.
album review
Born out of a downtown Los Angeles arts collective, Ozomatli hawk a hot, bubbling, multicultural musical pizza - hip hop, funk, ska and punk, with extra Latin salsa and Middle-Eastern spice.
The Arabic music and the appearance of Moriccan Gnawa star Hassan Hakmoun amount to post 9/11 comment (the Egyptian-sounding strings were recorded in Prague and submitted over the internet). Who's To Blame raps about "presidential-motorcades" and "secret political interests" over a Moroccan groove.
On the latin front, top salsa pianist Eddie Palmieri contributes a couple of solos with party-style merengue and touches of smooch to offset the urban attitude. Mixer Serban Ghenea, who has worked with Justin Timberlake and Prince, makes it sound like a cohesive, if anarchic, musical statement.
CD of the week
I'l never forget the euphoric surge through the crowd at Womad as Ozomatli bass player Wil-Dog Abers ordered them to raise their hands in peach signs... these Latino hip-hop rockers have a Clash-like ability to induce a sense of ecstatic, fist-waving "commitment".
Their blend of big authentic choruses, razor-sharp horn arrangements and grinding bass rhythms rocks like hell, and the fact that they emerged through social activism in some of the meanest neighbourhoods in Los Angeles - campaigning against poor working conditions and proposing a positive alternative to gun culture - lends their sloganeering an ususual degree of grittiness.
...this third album...has a good score of powerful, uplifting moments. The opener, Believe, arrives on a wave of surging ne-oriental strings, pounding bass and wah-wah guitar.
The rapping...has real bite. Saturday Night makes a fantastic LA teen anthem of entirely the right sort, while the salsa-fide Nadie Te Tira, featuring veteran pianist Eddie Palmieri, kicks up a real riot.
...enter into the Ozomatli spirit and you will certainly be moved.
album review
Hip hop with a conscience, though the US collective transcend political sloganeering and augment their Latin sounds with flavours drawn from Morocco and the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
album review
Recent weeks have seen Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys theme heavy albums on a post 9-11 world. This highly-politicised latino-hiphop collective were already addressing US hegemony on their 1998 debut, so instead of hand-wringing they push the envelope musically by incorporating Arabic sounds into their template. It works a treat and poses the question, does music speak louder than words?
Tracklist & Audio Samples
| play | Believe |
| play | Love And Hope |
| play | Street Signs |
| play | (Who Discovered) America? |
| play | Who's To Blame |
| play | Te Estoy Buscando |
| play | Saturday Night |
| play | Déjame En Paz |
| play | Santiago |
| play | Ya Viene El Sol - The Beatle Bob Remix |
| play | Doña Isabelle / Nadie Te Tira |
| play | Cuando Canto |
| play | Como Me Duele |
| play | Believe (Live) |