Bosq, the producer, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ is set to drop his fifth full length album titled Bosq Y Su Descarga Internacional (Bosq and his International Jam Session) on October 23rd on Bacalao Records. The album, which is Bosq’s most fully realized project to date, picks up where 2018’s Love & Resistance left off, filled with Disco and Funk steeped in Afro Latin rhythms and influences. The results reflect his unique vision and finds more genre defying dance floor amalgamations and less of the clearly traceable homages from some of his earlier work. Bosq pairs again with longtime collaborator, the Benin born, Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 alumni Kaleta, as well as new ones like Nidia Góngora, K.O.G, and Justo Valdez of Son Palenque.
The album is Bosq’s first full project since relocating from Boston to Medellín, Colombia, a little over 3 years ago. The move stemmed from a reevaluation of what it means to contribute and be a part of a musical community vs. merely borrowing the sounds that inspired him from afar. Part of this meant not rushing to release music influenced by his new surroundings, but studying with local music teachers, developing relationships with artists and studios throughout the country, and getting his bearings in the day to day life of a new country and a new language.
Bosq elaborates, “This album contains the experiences, inspiration, frustration and magic of my first few years living in Medellín, Colombia after moving here from Boston, all wrapped into album form. After years of working with musicians and styles from around the world from my old homebase, I started to honestly reevaluate what I was doing. Appropriation tends to be an easy catch all, but more deeply I was wondering, am I contributing something or am I only borrowing? Can I really understand the music that’s inspiring me just by listening to it? I wanted my work to be more authentic artistically, but more important to me is getting to a point where my music is giving something back and creating value for the musicians who are keeping the traditions of this music alive. If I’m making music inspired by Afro Latin rhythms and sounds, then any success I have, needs to create success for people in those communities as well.”
The transition, while awe inspiring and exciting, was not always easy. Everything from government bureaucracy to an on-the-fly electrician lesson in order to avoid constant equipment shocks from grounding issues at his new studio, made for a few extra months of frustrating delays.
Once he finally settled into his new home studio in the lush mountains surrounding Medellín, Bosq began to sketch out what would eventually become this album. The skeletons of the songs all took form there, recorded piece by piece and layer by layer, playing & writing as much as he could himself until the songs seemed ready to become something more. From there, trips to Bogotá to record horn sections in Mambo Negro Records, Cartagena to collaborate with Colombian Folkloric music legend Justo Valdez, and New York City to reunite with Kaleta provided the material to flesh out this growing collection of tracks.
The results are a varied but cohesive collection of songs most definitely geared towards the dance floor or festival grounds without giving up anything in terms of musical complexity. The sound is organic and could easily be mistaken for a live band at first listen, but years of touring the world as a DJ have given Bosqthe sensitivity to give just enough of an electronic edge to make the tracks shake a modern sound system like a proper house track. The vibrancy this combination brings to any party has been noted by DJ’s around the world, with the first two singles, “Rumbero” & “Wake Up” topping both vinyl and digital sales charts and racking up plays from everyone from Detroit Swindle to Yuksek to Crazy P.
The rest of the album expertly weaves threads of Cumbia, Afrobeat, Salsa, Calypso, Antillean styles & Tropical Soul into Disco & Funk anchored tapestries that in most cases defy easy genre classifications. The record is not only a love letter to the musical melting pot of Colombia that Bosq now calls home, but his attempt to truly add something new and unique to the current musical landscape in a way that respects the originators, in part by not following their blueprints too precisely.
