With its twanging and wailing electric guitars, throbbing hand drums and blend of African, Caribbean and Latin influences, the paranda music of the Garifuna people is compelling and unique. Soulful, lilting and yearning, these are the songs of the descendants of African slaves who escaped in a shipwreck, intermarried with the Arawak people of St Vincent, and now live along the Caribbean coast of central America. Since the death of Andy Palacio, singer-songwriter Aurelio Martinez has become the leading Garifuna performer, and this is his best album to date, although it includes only three new songs. Recording with his band “as live” in the studio, he brings new energy and emotion to favourites that range from the charming and slinky Laru Beya to the lament Yange, or a fresh version of Dondo, a paranda classic driven on by tremolo electric guitar lines from Guayo Cedeño.
