Chao, Mano - Radio Bemba Sound System (Virgin France)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/31/05
Live Manu Chao (Spanish reggae/rock) from 2000-2002 pieced together into a seamless flow that includes some of his hits like "Clandestino" and "Mala Vida" and a lot of audience noise and goofing off. There are lots of juicy bits in here, of course, but since they're woven into each other, often with audience applause, I suspect they'll often be hard to segue with other music really elegantly. I probably wouldn't just slap on a track without vetting it first. Most tracks in Spanish.
No FCC. Best standalone tracks 2, 3, 12, 18. Play 6 and 7 or 19 and 20 together – good songs, but don’t work well alone. Or you can set the player to continuous and go play in traffic for an hour.
1. 0:50 audience and random noises
2. 1:55 handclaps fade into vocals over organ
3. 2:13 **uptempo, full band, ska beat
4. 2:41 **mid tempo, more of a rock steady tempo, nice percussion, high energy
5. 3:09 uptempo ska, dubbish, takes a minute for full band to kick in
6. 2:50 **uptempo ska, same song as track 2 but with full band, backing vox, sound effects. Last 30 seconds dubbish, goes right into next track without a real ending.
7. 2:41 continued from prior track, but slower and with prominent bass, builds in tempo to pretty frenzied pace.
8. 2:34 mid tempo call and response intro, "cumbiamuffin" riddim, ends abruptly.
9. 3:54 slow, rather dreamy instrumentation, builds tempo. Last 8 seconds or so unrelated rhythmic clapping.
10. 2:34 uptempo ska, in English (repetitive lyrics), high energy.
11. 1:41 audience noise at start. Some speaking through loudspeaker, midtempo laid back music under.
12. 3:36 **nice bubbling reggae riddim, sung in English. Pleasant.
13. 1:04 high energy ska interlude
14. 0:20 shouts - intro to next track
15. 0:65 more shouts, high energy rock bit
16. 0:45 trumpet-based polka, leads into next cut
17. 2:09 nice fast number, but no real intro unless you play prior cut. Last 15 second a sort of "skit", not really connected.
18. 2:59 **midtempo reggae, a big hit for good reason. Nice Spanish guitar solo. Slow at ending.
19. 3:31 **uptempo, cumbiamuffin with horns. Goes right into next cut with no real ending.
20. 4:02 uptempo cumbiamuffin with accordion and funny noises. Suddenly switches to slow reggae in mid-song.
21. 2:26 uptempo with high-energy drums, electric guitar, horns. Another hit.
22. 0:33 frantic punky ska – really one song together with next track.
23. 1:10 see above.
24. 0:44 more frantic punky ska. Pretty much continues from above.
25. 3:32 an actual separate track! Lots of ambient noise and vox. When music finally starts, it’s pleasant midtempo reggae. Revs up a minute from end.
26. 1:59 *funk/rock with lots of scratching. Good fun.
27. 2:43 frantic rock with horns, switching to ska.
28. 3:16 starts with too much audience noise for a slow, mellow song.
29. 1:44 back to frantic ska. Instrumental apart from yelling. Really ends about half a minute early – the rest is all random noises.