There’s a heavy implication in that title that the album itself can’t quite pay off. The suggestion is of a sprawling, collaborative piece, filled with an array of collabs to bolster Los Bitchos’ culturally diverse fusion of psychedelia, garage-rock, funk and cumbia. In actuality? …five guests among the nine tracks.
Not that the ‘issue’ is more than superficial. It’s actually rather refreshing to see a band take the initiative of their own cultural exploration, instead of a Gorillaz-style glut of position-players that create the scene, but sometimes leave the core act gasping for air. Los Bitchos aren’t as adventurous, but the thrust to travel afield remains apparent. In a band of varying nationalities and heritages, so too are their collaborators, which gives Los Bitchos the encouragement to dig deeper into variety.
The ‘& Friends’ of that title, thus, carries more importance than just a mere signifier. Added names don’t need to be bursting from every scene, not when the handful who are here already shape Los Bitchos’ work so much. Naturally, it’s most prominent on the collaborations themselves. El Pençe is shaped into a Middle Eastern / transcontinental riff to accompany the Turkish singing of Kit Sebastian’s Merve Erdem. Later, Chicha Libre bring almost a Supernatural-era Santana energy to Conexiones, in its barrio-funk with a clanking, clattering percussive break, as if to further replicate the urban bustle.
Underpinning all of that are the jam-band sensibilities of Los Bitchos themselves. As a predominantly instrumental group, you get an album that’s more about forging cool, creative moments, kicked up by the added stimuli around them. It’s a real boost, especially when sat against their previous album Talkie Talkie. That had the same good foundation, but more often than preferred, ebbed back into a pleasant background collage. …& Friends has a lot more in its wheelhouse, feeling expressly designed to catch the ear. Serra Patale’s guitar really shines here, as it moves with spidery clanks on Walk In Salem, and quivers and splays out in individual wires amid the hothouse funk of Forest.
The album as a whole thrives from a rich, tight creative core, where individual sounds can be pinpointed but are never isolated or left hanging. Any rock pivots sit here, most notably Holding Cell—a blunter riff with a wide surface area and a vocal turn from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Ambrose Kenny-Smith, recast into a chugging robo-funk barnstormer. It’s perhaps where the maverick spirit of Los Bitchos cries out the most. The free-flowing, transformative nature of their work is on full display, and can impressively easy to get to grips with. The band rein in the sprawl without compromising their overall methodology, and the payoff is handsome. Hang Up (Pt. 2), for example, strolls with Sinkane and Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada alongside, winding up in Tame Impala-esque psych-pop that’s swimming in its own effects.
Some of that looseness could be afforded to the production, the one area where …& Friends undercuts itself. Overall, there’s a lot done right, keeping some close, muggy textures prominent, as well as bass and guitar with plenty of fluidity and groove. It’s all not quite there, though; it isn’t overproduced, but you can get the impression of that. The modernised sheen and shimmer gets overplayed, almost as if Los Bitchos are trying to create stiffer walls for themselves. It’s the album’s moments of calm that seem most afflicted, like Sunset where a colder, watery film pushes it to the cusp of gentrified new-age music. Cross also takes the hit here, with its Frutiger Aero riff that’s too enclosed and chintzy, with no possibility of growing. When songs like Conexiones show Los Bitchos at their most free-swaying and potent, the disparity is too much to ignore.
Nevertheless, even they contribute to Los Bitchos’ creative independence, worn proudly and prominently throughout the album. This is very much its own thing, free of interference or meddling, and left to bloom however the wind takes it. Regardless of how that falls out, there’s something so cool about a band allowing themselves to operate in that way, doubly so when outside names and influences are so welcome. With a foundation of stirring the musical melting pot like this, the sky’s the limit for Los Bitchos’ exploration. Whenever Vol. 2 comes around, its theirs to win.
For fans of: Tame Impala, Khruangbin, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
‘Los Bitchos & Friends Vol. 1’ by Los Bitchos is released on 13th November.
Words by Luke Nuttall
