Australian exclusive tour EP! 6-track limited edition CD with 12 minute enhanced video component! Oozomatli are a 12-piece Los Angeles combo whose music style can best be described as a mixture of salsa, Latino, samba, hip hop, Tex Mex & ska. Features the tracks 'Pensando En Mi Vida', 'Let Me Dream', 'Esa Morena', 'Ya Viene El Sol', 'Mi Gente' & 'Coming Up - Cumbia De Los Muertos'. Concord. 2003.
On their fourth full-length studio release, Ozomatli serve up a rhythmically seething musical mélange that serves as virtual mirror to the dizzying cultural contradictions at the heart of their Los Angeles hometown, wrapping it in a studio-polished veneer (largely courtesy of Santana/Ricky Martin producer KC Porter) that only underscores their intriguing reflections. They wear their civic pride as badge of honor on the gritty "City of Angels," a hip-hop-funk-fusion anthem that courses straight from the street to the stars. The joyous "La Temperatura," a tribute to the city's pro-immigrant marches of '06, picks up the local thread and weaves it into the band's longstanding social conscience, one they focus on Washington's inept response to Hurricane Katrina via the savory, N'Awlinz-meets-Norwalk swagger of "Magnolia Soul." The title track hints at a few conquered personal demons, while the sultry, Los Lobos-esque Spanish ballad "Violeta," the infectious 80s-ska-funk-meets-00s-punk-pop of "When I Close My Eyes," and the hip-hop-jarocho stew "La Segundo Mano" (featuring Queztal's Martha Gonzales on vocals) stand as vibrantly disparate testaments to the band's true range of pan-cultural musical fervor and accomplishments. --Jerry McCulley
You generally don't have to listen too hard to hear what's on the mind of Los Angeles music collective Ozomatli. The multi-faceted band is rarely subtle in its politics or its incorporation of countless Latin traditions as well as modern rock, jazz, pop and hip-hop. But on the band's third album, Street Signs, the addition of the Prague Symphony and the distinct influence of Arab and North African music certainly qualify as ambitious curve balls. Announcing its intentions from the get-go, album-opener "Believe" starts with a Rai-style vocal melody before finishing with a gritty rap as Bollywood-style strings provide a sweeping backdrop throughout. Never lingering in one place for long, the band quickly goes from there into some of the catchiest Latin Rock this side of Santana's "Smooth" on such gems as "Love And Hope" and "(Who Discovered) America?" before tearing off in other directions. These fearless hip-hop bambinos truly go their own way, saying what they want, playing what they want. --Tad Hendrickson
Multiculti Los Angeles-based 10-piece Ozomatli is more than the sum of their parts: hip-hop, salsa, and funk crash head-on in this surprisingly natural collaboration. Their self-titled debut makes Ozomatli sound like one of the world's great live shows--a party band with a brain--and they pull it off deftly. Rapper Chali 2na ("Charlie Tuna," get it?) has an authoritative voice and a way with words, mixing references from Edie Brickell to Ed McMahon; just he and the Cut Chemist (both of Jurassic 5), who lends his turntable skills to the proceedings, would make for an entertaining album. But it's the way that the two--when they're even featured--build on and blend into the grooves of the wah-pedal-and-brass-section-powered ensemble that sets Ozomatli apart. Danceable and engaging, they've made a promising debut. --Randy Silver
