Nuestra

Album Review

The debut CD by this Venezuelan quartet throws recent Brooklyn post-punk and retro-disco-punk into a blender with older alternative rock sounds and various ideas that have bubbled up through Latin rock over the last 20 years, plus some even older moves, and comes up with something surprisingly convulsive and powerful. The first track, "Radio Capital," is a sort of combination of latter-day Clash and very early Liars (circa They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top), with its synth cowbell, disco-funk bassline, and hoarse, chanted vocals, and that's before the "Gabba gabba hey" chorus comes in. They've got more on their side than sonic aggression and uptempo beatbox action, though; "Flamingo" is an oddly affecting Cure-meets-Modern English jangle number that recalls the glory days of Caifanes. Meanwhile, the roaring guitar riff that opens "Calle Barcelona" is almost worthy of early-'90s Sonic Youth, while the song proper is driven by a relentless disco beat that recalls their countrymen, Los Amigos Invisibles. These guys know their music history, North and South American, classic and recent, and they whirl it all into a churning, fist-pumping, sweaty mix that's terrific on record and doubtless explosive live.