This is not your mother’s Latin dance band — unless your ma likes to brew up a batch of Ayahuasca, wash it down with a handful of peyote buttons and spend the night howling at the moon while communing with the spirits of her ancestral goddess. In which case, go Mom! She’ll be totally in sync in with Combo Chimbita. And she’ll totally get into their powerfully intoxicating sophomore album Ahomale (which apparently means adorer of ancestors in Yoruba). On this 10-track mind-blower of a concept disc, the New York-based band of Colombians turbocharge their earthy and entrancing grooves with blasts of blistering metal and punk courtesy of thundering drums and noisy guitar heroics. They further expand their sonic horizons with hits of trippy psychedelia and experimental weirdness. Finally, they top off the whole freakfest with shamanic frontwoman Carolina Oliveros’s cathartic tales of folkloric mysticism and spiritual awakening. The result: A bold, beautiful and bewitching journey. And one helluva wild mother.
