Name: Caracoles
Brand: Orquesta Akokan

Tax rate EU

Default:19

Supplier EU

Rough Trade

Total Cap

9999

Format detail

Housed in Tip On Sleeve

Colour details

Discogs ID

Limited edition

Colour

Black

Format Music EU

Extended format

Extended format: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Download code

Download code: Yes

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Release date

2024-07-12

Format multiplier

Catalogue number

DAP-077LP

UPC / Barcode

823134007710

Black LP

Ocean Blue

Blue

Extended format: Yes

DAP-077LPX

823134907713

Blue LP

Download code: No

DAP-077CD

823134007727

Artist

Orquesta Akokan

Label EU

Daptone

Genre EU

Latin / South American 

Daptone is a label that specializes in hard funk, soul, and afrobeat music by current artists. It was formed by musicians and producers from the now defunct 1990s funk revival pioneer label Desco Records. The label is run by Gabriel Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) and Neal Sugarman. Daptone is home to renowned artists such as Sharon Jones, The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields, Sugarman 3, Antibalas, The Mighty Imperials, and others.

Most of Daptone's seven inch singles feature a generic blue record label. However, all singles are produced in limited quantities of 1000 - 2000 copies. In some cases where titles are highly sought after and sell out quickly, a second press run with a red colored label may be done.

Mikey Post oversees Direct Sales & Distribution at Daptone and explains that their releases have been continuously available since February 2019. While records released prior to 2009 did not include barcodes initially, they still use the original 'Mother' plates for pressing new copies today. There may be slight variations in the color of labels over the years due to printing on an offset machine with stock paper.

On this, their third album, they combine talents with Cuban lyricist, singer and composer Kiko Ruiz, who has toured and recorded with Pancho Amatʼs illustrious Estrellas del Buena Vista Social Club as well as having a longstanding history as a singer, composer and arranger with Orquesta Maria Alejandra y Cubanía. 

Caracoles ushers (Grammy-award nominated) Orquesta Akokánʼs unique brand of mambo into the 21st century, imbuing it with the groupʼs signature sense of akokán–a Cuban Yoruba word meaning “from the heart”.

Back at the helm are producer and multi instrumentalist, Jacob Plasse and virtuosic pianist, composer and arranger Michael Eckroth - a collaboration that continues to lead Orquestaʼs exploration of the sublime mambo in all its depth and breadth. 

And although Caracoles is of this moment, its raices stretch deep into the past, presenting a glorious return to the iconic grooves of an era indelibly marked by Benny Moré, Perez Prado and Machito in New York bands and Cubaʼs orquestas gigantes of the mid-twentieth century. While some songs are everyday Cuban life story-telling, Ruiz, a tata —priest— informs his lyrics with a Palo Mayombe spirituality propelling the mambo back to its original meaning. Despite being popularised world-wide as a festive, light-spirited, danceable genre, mambo is not to be taken lightly in the Palo Mayombe religion. Mambo is both a song and a prayer, beseeching good spirits to guide oneʼs journey away from darkness. Two of the albumʼs songs —including the title tune— are in this Congo dialect, designed to be impenetrable by the uninitiated. Caracolesʼ fierce, effervescent grooves, Ruiz affirms, can “...vibrate your soul, which is precisely what the world needs right now”. The tunes offer an irresistible invitation to heed the title songʼs invitation, “Cucha mambo que yo emboa montero...este mambo es paʼ ti.” Listen to this story, I bring it to you as a travelling song...This mambo is for you.

Caracoles

Music EU

Discover Caracoles by Orquesta Akokan on Daptone. A unique blend of mambo with deep roots, spiritual lyrics, and vibrant grooves. Available in vinyl.