Mantecoso - Afro-Latin Soul @ Les Bobards

-Photo by Luciana Braga

Whoever came up with phrase "everything's better with butter" must have been thinking about Butta Beats’ (Nomadic Massive) new band Mantecoso (which literally means buttery). Saturday night at Les Bobards was the official christening of their fresh salsa-hip hop sound and it was quite the success. Around 10:30pm, a mass of beautiful people from the diverse Hispano-Montreal communities invaded Les Bobards’ dance floor demanding that this highly anticipated project begin. At this point, a procession of instrumentalists started to set up on stage and the whole crowd was in place ready to dance, when in came the man of the hour rocking black ray bans, a yellow guayabera and brown leather laced up shoes. Clasíco! Butta Beats and his gorgeous partner in crime Gitu Jain did an amazing job at reviving the complex vocals of salsa masters such as Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades, and Celia Cruz. Their rendition of "Se Acaba Este Mundo" (Willie Colón & Hector Lavoe) was particularly on point and invoked some serious crowd participation. The sound during the show could have been better – unfortunately the hip hop segments suffered the most. Some of the featured rappers were barely heard and a lot of lyrical content was lost. The Latin orchestra on the other hand was definitely the MVP of the night. I can still feel the beat of the congas, and Steven Salcedo's saxophone solo was one for the books, no doubt. Another artist who really stood out was Montreal’s own Lokita, a young dominican MC from Cote-Des-Neiges. Her rhyming was super crisp and clean, and she had a presence that not many have at that age. I would definitely keep an eye out for her music.

All in all, the show had me dancing all night and made me hungry for more Mantecoso. I would love to see them perform again, maybe at a bigger venue with more room to actually salsa dance and better sound quality. As a matter of fact, I would love to take some Mantecoso home with me, so I hope recording time is part of their future plans.

Big ups to the Afro Latin Soul! promoters for making Saturday night possible; it’s always such a pleasure to see artists of the community help each other out and Mantecoso was a perfect example of how collaborations can turn into greatness. ¡Ya tú sabes!

-MF Gold will be hosting Say Word! on Mondays at 10-11am, starting April 18th