| If you’ve never been to a Grupo Fantasma show, you owe it to yourself to go. The band, which mixes influences from border corridos, jazz, cumbia, salsa, merengue, Afro-funk, and Jamaican dancehall, transforms any space they perform at into a booty-shaking party. You don’t have to be an expert salsero to get in the groove; even if you’re the kind of person that likes to hang out on the sidelines, you’ll find yourself shaking your hips before long. Seriously…it’s that irresistible.
But if for some catastrophic reason you can’t get to a show, you may find yourself compulsively reaching for Comes Alive, their new live album recorded in March 2006 at Antone’s in Austin, Texas. The hallmarks of their live performances—the infectious energy, piercing horns, exhilarating percussion, and the camaraderie between the band and the audience—infuse the album, which boasts their most popular songs. There isn’t a single moment of musical downtime on this CD, which drives hard and fast through all fourteen tracks.
No ordinary salsa band, Grupo Fantasma refuses to be pinned down to any one particular genre of Latin dance music; rather, they dip in and get dirty with all of them, switching back and forth between salsa, cumbia, and merengue with abandon, throwing in a bit of jazz and Santana-style influences to come up with a sound that is distinctively their own. Comes Alive captures their musical range perfectly, seamlessly moving from one piece to another while lead singer Jose Galeano playfully introduces each. The album polishes off the set with two encore songs (one of which is 12 minutes long!), which the band delivers after the crowd refuses to let them go. Listen to the last two tracks and you’ll know what to say to get an encore at your next Grupo Fantasma show: “Otra! Otra! Otra!”
- Olga Herrera (AustinSound.net)
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