Caribbeana Esoterica #4: Punta

Buried under snow? A trip to the sunny Caribbean should sort you out just fine. But, this being a MusicForManiacs cruise, we'll be steering clear of the (sometimes overly) familiar sounds of Jamaica, Cuba or Trinidad.* So far we've been diggin' the sounds of spouge (Barbados), junkanoo, and goombay (both from The Bahamas,) and fungi (British Virgin Islands.) Now let's move ashore to Belize, and note the African descendants grooving to their own style, punta rock. Ah, but what's this?! Their Honduran neighbors to the north are tired of the usual Latino styles. They want to add a little salsa to that creole gumbo.

Los Roland's "Los Reyes de la Punta"

Album title means "The Kings of the Punta" and I ain't arguing. Punta rock is not rock, but it does rock. Only 8 songs, but wonderful, high energy stuff (the song "Punta Rock" was a staple of my mix tapes in the '90s) with a full electric band, complete with cheezy synths. If you don't speak Spanish, you're not missing much. Lyrics don't translate to anything more meaningful than "Let's go dance the punta rock." But, sometimes, that's all that needs to be said.


*Guess what I heard playing in Starbucks this morning? Bob Marley! What a shock!!!11!