Mi Latinoamérica Sufre

Álvarez traced the idea to rastrillo, the Barranquilla practice of covering African records and retitling them in Spanish, and to champeta and zouk. He had wanted to make a two-guitar record for years and called the result a Caribbean-Colombian soukous, after-highlife. Both electric guitars were recorded with no effects, which he found hard, and he sang without processing, unlike the deepened voice of the salsa album. He called electric guitar a dead instrument.

As always he recorded alone, starting from experiments on guitar, and rebuilt the music with the band for live shows. The opener Sé Que Estoy Cambiando starts with a growled spoken line inspired by Lee Perry and Miles Davis, Mandala imitates the funky Machuca sound of the guitarist Brando Ortiz, and Mi Pregunta is a minimalist cumbia about a man who delivers a political soliloquy and never asks his question. The Ansonia LP is ANSW4003.