Aterciopelados

Everything is mixed up on Rio -- rivers and reproduction, dancing and protesting -- and maybe that's the point. Andrea Echeverri's imperturbable voice telegraphs calm, flowing steadily while subjects surface: immigration policies, environmental degradation, rapacious capitalism and the miracle of life. "Rio" is dedicated to the band's home river, the Bogota, and you can't ignore the symbolism of renewal that pervades the album. The best tracks bare their teeth a bit -- as with rapper Gloria Martinez on "28" -- or play, as when Echeverri's daughter Milagros sings on "Ataques de Risa."

A Spanish-language Patti Smith, Colombia's Andrea Echeverri offers prayers for the polluted
Bogotá River over the sultry, syncopated funk rock of "Río" and ponders immigration laws
on the New Wave bolero "Bandera." But what defines her band Aterciopelados' seventh
record isn't its politics — it's the rhythms, which is appropriate for a cross-cultural set
whose title denotes both a river and South America's best party city. There are f... More >