Grupo Niche - Tocando el Cielo Con las Manos

There are so few new salsa albums that I consider worth talking about that I'm thinking maybe it's worth it to start a thread about this one, since I won't be starting threads like this more often than every few years or so, the way things are going with salsa.

Even this one is uneven. First, to get it out of the way, I am not into the title track (which unfortunately appears in two versions), though maybe if I understood Spanish it would make a difference. The song is a tribute to the late Jairo Varela (1949-2012), the most important single individual behind Grupo Niche (which was founded in 1978--taking these dates from Wikipedia, I hope they're right), easily one of the most important salsa bands of the last three decades, in my view. So I think one has to give it some slack as a sentimental tribute to Varela.

While the album is presented a tribute to Varela, it doesn't fall into simply being an overview of the band's career. Some of the material strikes out in new directions, especially the tracks that borrow from Cuban timba. At the same time, on "Hijo," the production reminds me quite a bit of the sound they went for on compilation Brillantes, certainly more than anything I've heard from Niche from the late 90's on.

I like the album best when the songs are hard driving like "Eres Tu":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2VNzigqjE

"La Novia," is even purer (Latin) dance floor crack, though less overtly driving. I imagine the extreme vocal vibrato will be a turn off for many. I generally don't care for heavy vocal vibrato, but it works for me here, maybe because it sounds like the singer is so in control of it. Maybe it's so obviously a matter of artifice that it's more tolerable to me? And then the coro comes in with a shiver of pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S05_Sw3vnxM

On to the muso side of Grupo Niche. This track, "Aprieta," is fun to pull apart. It starts off quoting the middle of "Las Caras Lindas" (a song penned by Tite Curet Alonso and made famous by singer Ismael Rivera), eventually moves into what sounds to me like a retro TV soundtrack sort of movement at around 2:99, and then turns into Cuban timba, of all things, at about 3:15. Now my relationship with timba is that I hate most of it (though there are some notable exceptions), but hearing (Colombian) Grupo Niche go timba, especially mid-song like this is very amusing to me. I think there may something intentional comical about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQzAtTo2R5k

The other track with obvious borrowing from timba is "Ya No Hables," in which the keyboards go timba at about one minute it. (Sorry, can't begin to explain what makes it different from standard salsa piano, but if someone is interested in the musicological angle on it, Kevin Moore's music theory discussions of timba is the place to look.) Despite my general distate for timba, I've long been fine with its approach to keyboards, so if salsa bands want to borrow that, it's fine with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRIczgYDlhw

"El Hijo" is one of the songs here with more of an old school Grupo Niche sound. (This might even be a remake--I don't know their back catalog inside out.) Not much to say. Tight fucking band. Oh look, this has an actual video (I hadn't seen it before):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54m3e0L9H-g

Will end with an anthem to Colombia. There are lots of these anthems to the Colombia and its cities, but this one can hold it's own amongst them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd8V3SLtAkk

Over the years, Grupo Niche has made a virtue of the high turnover of its lead vocalists (many of whom have a tendency to eventually go solo or form other bands). That contributes to the diversity of Niche's catalog over the years, though they have also experimented successfully with different sounds, over time. I wouldn't have even recognize most of the songs on this album as being by Grupo Niche if I had listened to them without any further information. A successful comeback.

This album is available on Spotify