New Music From Combo Chimbita

Combo Chimbita is a visionary quartet that draws from ancestral mythologies and musical enlightenment. Comprised of Carolina Oliveros’ mesmeric contralto, illuminating storytelling and fierce guacharaca rhythms, Prince of Queens’ hypnotic synth stabs and grooving bass lines, Niño Lento’s imaginative guitar licks, and Dilemastronauta’s powerful drumming, the lure and lore of Combo Chimbita is intense and undeniable. Continuing their mystical saga, the quartet will roar back onto the world stage in 2022 with IRÉ, channeling the fear, rage and empathy of a world in flames into an urgent spirit of musical dissidence. The album’s evocative title is forged upon double-edged meaning: on one hand embracing the divinely inspired blessings and prosperity foretold by our spiritual elders, and on the other a brazen, propulsive affirmation of revolutionary futures in the making. Afro-Caribbean transcendance, bewildering chants, booming drums and psychedelic distortion lay the rhythmic foundation for IRÉ; a testament to the ever expanding scope of Combo Chimbita’s sonic palette and their modes of resistance in realms both spiritual and terrestrial. “Yo Me Lo Merezco,” the final advance single before the album’s release on January 28, is the fourth and last in a series of auto-fictional narrative videos for album tracks that feature prominent queer and trans performance artists.

Described by NPR’s alt.Latino as an “otherworldly presence,” Combo Chimbita is the creative unity of Carolina Oliveros (vocals, guacharaca), Niño Lento es Fuego (guitar), Prince of Queens (bass, synthesizers) and Dilemastronauta (drums), who together transcend common concepts of time and nationality. As self-described Abya-yalistas seeking meaning beyond a Latin American framework, they carry the burning torch of an unbroken, insubmissive people, unshackling their essence from the cruelty of conquest throughout Abya Yala. “Music is a tool of connection across time, territory and generations,” says Prince of Queen. IRÉ finds its rallying spark in convulsive present day realities by metabolizing the anxieties of systemic racism, capitalist decadence, totalitarian governments and the attempted erasure of queer and trans people.

“There’s something magical here. This NYC by way of Colombia band is quite a charismatic, engaging trip.” -Refinery29

“Lead vocalist Carolina Oliveros is an otherworldly presence over Afro Colombian rhythms meted out by guitar, bass and genre crossing drumming.” –NPR alt.Latino

RIYL: Very Be Careful, Goat, Tropa Magica, Bicicletas Por La Paz, Dengue Fever, Parquet Courts, La Chamba, Chancha Via Circuito, Y La Bamba

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Label: Anti-