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Ten years ago, in the unlikely town of Extremadura, in southern Spain near the border of Portugal, singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist Fernando Echave, a.k.a. Gecko Turner, discovered Afro-beat master Fela Kuti. Gecko quickly absorbed and later applied that African sound to the bands he was involved with at the time, especially one called Perroflauta. As part of a new generation of Spanish musicians, Echave/Gecko prepared a mental soup for the hips, where everything sounds great for late nights at the club. Guapapasea! features a blend of reggae, bossa nova, jazz, blues, samba, hip-hop, and rock with Spanish, English, and Portuguese lyrics. The opening track is an outrageous Spanish-language reggae-swing version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” though you’ll find yourself rather entertained, and slowly humming along, throughout the album. Highlight: the Brazilian-tinged “Limn en la Cabeza.”
