DA LATA - SERIOUS

At first, I thought the latest album from Da Lata, Serious (Palm Pictures), was going to be about our webmaster here at tastes like chicken, Latta de Saint. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had nothing to do with it.
Instead, I put the disc on and was charmed by rapid drum beats and the aesthetic of a tribal sound. My mind instantly jumped to associations with groups like the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra or the Afrobeat king, himself, Fela Kuti. And yes, those comparisons are well-deserved. But Serious grooves and curls away on a vast path that's all its own.
By incorporating samples and programming, along with accordions and some slight R&B touches with the more traditional sounds, Da Lata pulls the ten-track escapade into another realm. This doesn't exactly elevate the LP, but it definitely makes it something that is inspired and original-- sorta like what DJ Cam did with Loa Project.
Besides that, the album is internally creative, in that no two songs on Serious really mimic each other. The beats, instrumentation, and vocals are constantly shifting and whirling. That, combined with the calculated, yet random shifts from native sounds to electronica, helps to make Serious a refreshing jaunt into the promising world of blending music built on ethnicity with a bit of modernity.
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