Isabela

"Makina Loca is a band that performs in a wide range of styles on the soukous-Latin axis, working hard to keep up with the virtuoso talents of lead singer Ricardo Lemvo, and their album exudes all the raw energy that can pack a dance floor.

With arrangements by Jesús 'El Niño' Pérez and Bopol Mansiamina, this force of Afro-Latin party music is unstoppable. Furthermore, they are augmented here by Papa Noel on acoustic guitar on four numbers and by Quatre Étoiles' vocalists Wuta Mayi & Nyboma on two others. They revisit African jazz on a sprightly cover of Tino Baroza's "Lollobrigida", a paean to the 1960s Italian film star Gina. Lemvo's "Serenata Angolana" is a wispy wistful ballad with Noel on guitar, soprano sax and accordion, the song sounding a little like fellow Congolese singer Sam Mangwana's "Minha Angola".

Cape Verdean chanteuse Maria de Barros joins in on chorus. Things perk up for `Mentirosa', a charanga featuring the veteran Cuban violinist Alfredo de la Fé with some inspired jamming reminiscent of the classic Orchestra Rhythmo Africa-Cubana from the late 80s. The title song is a Congolese rumba at which Lemvo excels, his honeyed delivery backed by muted trumpet. After that we need some more of the high-energy soukous sound, which we get on the track "Prima Donna" complete with the banda horns that make Makina Loca such a quintessential party band. Nseka Huit-Kilos, who has been hanging back, fires up on this one. Huit-Kilos is all over "Papa Na Bana" too, a last chance to boogie down before we get to the final ballad, "Elbette". It shows yet another side to Lemvo - a bolero in Turkish! Alfredo de la Fé adds some violin fills and everyone does their bit perfectly, as you would expect from such a consummate band."
- Alastair Johnston (Songlines)