LOS RURALES - A BLAST OF OPTIMSM

Los Rurales deep country roots

From the moment you press Play on this exuberant band a wave of pure exuberance gathers force.- an  instant tonic for anyone down in the dumps - a wall of sound, a controlled cacophony of bright South American joy.

Los Rurales are surely the next Buena Vista Social Club, a sound so infectious it absolutely defies defeatism.

Yet Los Rurales with their hilarious album cover close ups  right up the nostrils of calves in the green lush mountains of Mexico, are not as country hick as they seem. A Mexican band of five Oaxacans and a Sinaloense, they met years ago when they all studied in the Faculty of Music of the University of Veracruz.

The sextet started as a brass quintet with two trumpets, a horn, a tuba a trombone and percussionist, They first played in small local bars, but word spread. Audiences loved their high-octane energy .They soon played outside their home town catapulted on to the opening of the  "Around the world on 80 bicycles" Festival and  then the Otras Músicas de Oaxaca and El Festival Señor de Chalca in Chalco.

Along the way they met Steve Last, the American arranger. The ‘bonus track’ ( what is that exactly?) What a Wonderful World   ( however cleverly done always a downer without Louis )is his mix on this album.But for me the group’s La Bamba , no matter how many times I have listened to it, is the best I have ever heard. It defies lethargy; in fact it might be the liveliest wake up track around.

Los Rurales are in their own way, very exotic, a blend of New Orleans jazz, Latin rhythm and chaotic cameraderie. About as far from a January in our chilly grey Atlantic island as you can get, they have all the va va voom of the sadly faded Simone Bolivar Orchestra but on an independent scale that surely secures their musical futures for a long time to come.