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Album Review: John Beltran - In Full Color (Ubiquity)
Reviewer: Marcos Moret
In Full Color is Beltran’s sixth album, and his second on the Ubiquity label. I can tell you straight off
that this is a real treat. Not having heard his previous works, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was immediately
struck by how damn good this is, and was left wondering how I’d managed to miss out on this guy’s music for so long.
When you break it down, Candela is a strange tune, but all the more impressive for it: a samba bassline is
combined with a clave (the metronomic 'tac tac tac, tac tac' found in so many Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms),
cuica (Brazilian talking drum), and Spanish vocals. Recorded with the Candela Arts Crew in Puerto Rico’s San Juan
during last year’s Candela Arts Festival, it’s got dancefloor written all over it but is also a real pleasure just to
listen to when just chilling at home. The same can be said for most of the songs on this album: they make
you want to dance but are simultaneously richly textured and melodic. In this sense, In Full Color is an
impressively accomplished balancing act.
Kissed By The Sun is so pulsatingly warm that I changed into my swimming shorts, grabbed the beach towel and was
about to start slapping on suntan lotion before I came to and remembered I was in one of the danker corners of East
London on a rainy January evening instead of in my Havana apartment overlooking the Malecon, the early morning sun
shimmering on the waves. Seriously though, there’s some sort of subtle afro-Cuban rhythm here which, combined with
lovely female vocal harmonizing, some Terry Callier-esque jazz scatting, and a deeply humid bassline, make this another
beauty.
And so it goes on. Song after song of heartfelt and at times almost painfully beautiful music. Beltran has song
composition down to a tee. He proves himself a master of assimilating influences, styles, and ideas and bringing them together
in a package that works as a fluid whole, not just on a song-by-song basis. And he’s also been prudent in bringing in
some superb contributors: producer Andreas Saag, vocalist Elsa Hedberg (Stateless, Swell Session), vocalist and keys
wunderkind Ayro, wicked Detroit guitarist/producer John Arnold, Colonel Red (Beatless/People), and the Candela Arts
Crew including Local 12. Their impact is evident across the album: check, for example, John Arnold’s amazing guitar
playing on the aforementioned Kissed By The Sun and the extra verve it adds to that piece.
Essential.
RELATED LINKS:
Interview - on Know The Ledge
John Beltran - official website
Ubiquity
Discography
Buy In Full Color at Amazon.com
CD
Buy Sun Gypsy at Amazon.com
CD
RELEASE DATE: Tuesday 17 February 2004 (UK/US)
PUBLISHED: Sunday 11 January 2004
To send us music for potential inclusion, email us at
promos@knowtheledge.net
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::: RELATED LINKS
Interview - on Know The Ledge
Ubiquity
Discography
Buy In Full Color at Amazon.com
CD
Buy Sun Gypsy at Amazon.com
CD
More Reviews
|
