The PR for The Blaxound’s El Maravilloso Sonido Instrumental LP has it that bandleader Marta Romàn is, ‘hooked on the soundtracks of the Blaxploitation movies of the 60’s and 70’s,’ and you can certainly hear that coming through loud and clear on a set which has plaudits from both Neal Sugarman and Shawn Lee. Less that lead you to believe this is a nine-track album of wah-wah drenched car chase themes though, let’s just clarify that that isn’t the case.
What you get instead is a collection of warm cinematic soul ripe for soundtracking all the non-car chase elements of some imagined blaxploitation flick. The yearning opener Mai Tai for example could be our protagonist going about their business amid the fallout of another failed relationship while the more louche Caiman might find that same protagonist getting their thing on at the end of an evening in a nightclub. And the monkey’s favourite cut, Orgullo, might be a title sequence with sweeping panoramic cinematography coming from a helicopter-mounted camera – no drones back then, right! Which brings us to El Soplón – cue a non-vocal montage in which our hero (or heroine) is on the case, tapping up all their informants for the word on the street. Also check the funky Dakar which might be a sprint down an alleyway ending in a flying tackle on a suspect into a row of dustbins. And so it goes. Anyway, I’ma hafta split before the man gets here, you know he suspect anyone know too much. ‘Fore you know, you got yo’ ass thrown in jail, yo’ wheels be taken to the pound as evidence, and yo’ girl disappear. And they ain’t nobody want that – leastways, apart from the man…
(Out now on Golden Rules Records)