Photo by: Christian Apolo
‘Caballo Negro’ or Black Horse by Sudakistan is an album I was destined to hear.
In the week leading up to Liverpool Psych Fest 2104, if El Lobo first came to me in the guise of ‘Dale Gas’, then ‘Rabia‘ literally injected me with Sudakistan’s rabid frenzy. My pack allegiance was immediately assured.
Luke Reilly, co-founder of PNKSLM Recordings, at the time described Sudakistan as a group of five South American guys, living in Stockholm and as being, “the best live band around today”.
Liverpool certainly fanned the flames of Sudakistan’s glowing reputation, whetting the appetite with the promise of much more to come…
‘Caballo Negro’, opens to uplifting rhapsodic delight, exuberant latin rhythms, filtered through a celebratory, low Stockholm winter sun; ‘Mundo Mamon’, casts out false devotions, taking disjointed spiritual flight, a rapturously sonorous, infectious tribal chant; ‘Dale Gas’, kicks catalytic ass, it’s intoxicating vapours, shredding layers of inhibition, a delicious stab of rushing, neurotoxic elation, the cortex left suspended in jangling eddies; ‘Wife Meadow’, marks a change of pace with this soulful paean, a heartfelt swirling incantation; ‘You And Your Way’, is the new single, a soaringly anthemic, desert soaked, horizon-busting epic…
‘Concrete Djungle’, is a cacophonous mixmaster freak-out, a rainbow-tinged, pots and pans revolutionary soundtrack; ‘Rabia’, is a raging, four fingered, outstretched plea for freedom and persistence, an urgent, up tempo, edifying call to action, solidarity in the face of inhuman oppression; ‘Atomico’, slips a gear for an altogether mellower, first summer of love, enveloping, spaced-out vibe; ‘El Movimiento’, shudders with fluidic motion, decrying injustices, perpetrated against Chicano civil liberty empowerment, their subjugation here given virulent voice; ‘Rumba’, sashays in secular party mode, a trance inducing, free-form revelry; Album closer, is the appropriately named, ‘Skymning’, drawing it’s shimmering, dusky veil over proceedings, awash with kaleidoscopic atonal sonic musings, this down-the-rabbit-hole odyssey, oozes with quirky, phantasmagorical metaphor…
‘Caballo Negro’ delivers everything and more. It’s triumphant carnival vibe, is laced through with poignant social commentary, a psychedelic chiaroscuro to invigorate and enliven the psyche…
First limited-edition vinyl pressing, on transparent / black splattered vinyl is available now from the PNKSLM Recordings Shop. The album was produced by Les Big Byrd‘s Joakim Åhlund and Luke Reilly.
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