Cumbia Fantas​í​a by El Dragon Criollo

An absolute dancefloor killer , shaking, brimming with the flavor of cumbia and Colombian party that forces you to move. And he does it little by little, lets go of the bad, and lives the good, because “Cumbia Fantasia” lives up to its name with a fascinating arsenal of rhythm and melody, traditional, tasty percussion, accompanied by guitar, bass and clarinet, which makes it one of the fundamental sounds on which the new solo album by producer Paulo Olarte Toro aka El Dragon Criollo pivots.

If Olarte, like a jungle wizard, continually threatens to bring the party to a climax throughout the album, with “Cumbia Fantasía” he finishes taking the plunge, here all his mixture of cumbia tradition with instruments and electronic elements is unleashed, a synthesizer leads the melody, sonic garnishes sparkle, and, suddenly, those surprising live voices, street, picotero, overturned pitch, an element, if you like, a twin of all Latinidad, sonidero, picó, miniteca , from Mexico to Peru and from Colombia to Geneva, that swagger of “mocking spirit, you can’t with me” that laughs and you laugh with him, and forces you to dance without question.

released October 1, 2021