This is a band that’s moving up to the next level. After winning many fans with their funky, freaky debut album and then really honing their skills on their second record, the band has stormed back onto the scene with their third long player. Welcome back, CULCHA CANDELA! The diverse cultural background of this band has blessed them with a creative fire that allows them to reinvent themselves at every turn. Then it should be no surprise that the sound of Culcha Candela in 2007 has once again morphed beyond all expectations – perhaps even beyond the expectations of the band members themselves!
But to be honest, the non-stop performance schedule of these busy young Berlin musicians hardly allows them any time for such considerations. After completing “Union Verdadera†(2004) and “Next Generation†(2005, Top 20) within a two-year period, it was time for them to hit the road and do the thing that has made them who they are today … gigging! Yep, full throttle around the world!
In their live shows, Culcha Candela gives off a totally unique vibe that has been rocking audiences from Warsaw to Bogotá, from Amsterdam to Venice, and from Paris to Berlin. If all the world’s a stage, then the stage is the only true home for these guys!
Once back in Berlin, the band got down to business on their third album in late 2006. Here, the initial concept was simply ‘bigger and better’. But once they started meeting up for the album sessions, the outlines of the new album rapidly started gaining shape. With all that live experience under their belts, the band began writing songs that were somehow more powerful and confident yet also more relaxed – in a nutshell, cooler. The beats have more Hip-Hop in them and less Reggae, and the Latino elements are more organically integrated into the whole than ever before. Lyrically and thematically, the band felt it was time to drop the weighty political stuff and instead start writing about personal experiences and emotions. After all, the mere existence of this colorful troupe is proof enough that multiculturalism works. So why bother continuing to sing about it in every song on their third album? Once the band came to terms with this, it was time to get started on their respective journeys of self-discovery. But with their heavy tour schedule, this was not to be an easy task. Much harder, in fact, than knowing the names of the cities they might be waking up in tomorrow … with all this as the backdrop, listening to the new album reveals some songs that are like new chapters in the Culcha Candela history. Songs like “Besonderer Tag†(“Special Dayâ€), for instance, or the touching “Taraâ€. The new record also sees Culcha Candela returning to their roots and to their original credo of “Changing the world through good vibes!†While not losing their unique personal touch, the band raises the stakes with positive party anthems like “Chica†and “Hamma!â€. Altogether, this is a balanced, homogenous effort that works better as a whole than any of their previous albums. Interestingly enough, the absence of preaching actually lightens the band’s political message and makes the whole thing more elegant and ultimately more successful. To put it simply, this is the official party soundtrack for a better world!
Itchyban, Mr. Reedoo, Larsito, Don Cali, Lafrotino, Johnny Strange and DJ Chino have a lot of things planned for 2007. You can tell that these guys are focused like never before – they’re more mature and more professional. But at the same time, you can just sense that they love making music more than ever.
The production on the new album has added a new sense of dynamism to the Culcha Candela sound. Producers Kraans de Lutin (Martin Jondo, Tiger Hifi) and Andreas “Boogieman†Herbig (ICH&ICH, Reamonn and many others) have joined forces with various band members in co-production duties to form a highly creative and successful production team. We’ve all come to expect the fiery energy of Culcha Candela from their past records. But this new album more than meets our expectations; it takes us to the next level with them!
