Ziguala by Las Rubias Del Norte

From the 1930’s through the 1950’s, Latin music dominated popular music around the world. Mambos and rumbas found their way in the pop hits of Shanghai, Bollywood, Constantinople, Malaysia, France and Japan. Then came Rock and Roll which would conquer the youth of the world – and nothing was ever the same.

Las Rubias del Norte’s third album, Ziguala, is an attempt to imagine what a pop record would sound like had the Latin influence continued its course without interruption. The album uses electric instruments that defined the rock explosion of the 1960’s – such as organs and electric guitars but its arrangements reveal a definite bias for the Latin music it is mostly inspired by.

Las Rubias del Norte is a seven piece combo which is fronted by two classically trained singers and backed by bongos, congas, bells, bass, cuatro, electric guitar, piano and organ. On the album, the band also makes use of a string quartet, vibes and marimba. The tracks are re-interpretations of songs from Spain, France, Peru, India, Mexico, Greece, Venezuela, Colombia and Naples.

Ziguala is not so much a latin record as it is a pop record that uses a latin vocabulary. Think of it as the opposite of Rock en Español; a Latin genre which uses a rock vocabulary.