Dig Deep: Orquesta De Musica Moderna De Oriente – Oriente – Egrem (196?)

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Orquesta De Musica Moderna De Oriente – Nosotros
Orquesta De Musica Moderna De Oriente – La Comparsa
Orquesta De Musica Moderna De Oriente – No Quiero Llante

Bought a nice little batch of Cuban records a little while ago, most of which I’m sure I’ll feature here at some point. Had no idea what to expect from this album, as I’d never heard of the group and there wasn’t much info online either. For the most part in those instances I look for other intangibles, such as when it appears the record was recorded and, if listed, the styles of music that are on the record. In this case, though I’m not sure the exact date, I’m guessing that this one was recorded probably around 1968 or 1969. I was most excited to hear the songs listed as “Fantasia” as this generally is a term that’s used for psychedelic or rock sounds in this period of time, but neither of those were particularly notable. From there I was drawn to a track called “Nosotros” which was labeled as “Samba Beat.” As you can hear above, this one is pretty cool, with a kind of start stop rhythm, where the vocals are there acapella, and then a bit of the music will come in before dropping out again. The Orquestra de Musica Moderna de Oriente or OMMO has a really brassy sound, and probably was a true orchestra with a whole bunch of players. The arrangements have a certain big band quality and while tracks like “La Comparsa” and “No Quiero Llanto” aren’t nearly as funky as I would have liked them to have been, but the whole record was pleasant surprise and a nice addition to my collection.

Cheers,

Michael

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