MAMBOPUSSYKAT
by Angel & the Mambokats
Genre(s): American Afro Cuban jazz,1 Afro Cuban soul,2 mambo, Latin, dance, ballroom
Mood: vintage/retro, midcentury
You can take with as many grains of salt with this review as you want because I really, really just love it all. I’m particular about voices. Some elevate my soul. Some make me curl up in a ball in a corner with my hands over my ears and make me rock back and forth crying.3 If your voice sucks, it won’t matter to me how good the tune is.
Angel’s voice is deep, rich, smooth, and smoky, but growly when it needs to be. The orchestration is exquisite and the production values are clean. It’s very sexy, sinuous, but it’s overshadowed by its main purpose, which is to get you to dance, which, in Magdalene, I point out, is just sex on your feet with your clothes on in public.4
The whole vibe is a retro midcentury ballroom or urban dance club where people go to dress up and get sweaty, to see and be seen, to drink champagne and nibble on hors d’oeuvres, to act like you don’t have a care in the world for a few hours. If you do have cares, Angel will make you forget them.
In short, the man set himself a task to do something niche5 and lovely, and he does his job very, very well.6
I first heard of Angel & the Mambokats watching Benji and Heidi’s dance routine on So You Think You Can Dance in 2006, which, as we all know, was just 2 years ago.
I love this stuff, so of course, I bought a bunch of Angel & the Mambokats stuff.
Now, I don’t know how it happened, but either I posted something on some social media platform and mentioned Angel & the Mambokats, and the titular Angel Ferreira messaged me or I messaged him to praise his work,7 but suddenly I got a phone/texting buddy. We don’t chat often, usually only when he wants to try out an online concert “venue” pay-per-view app or drops something new, which I did last night because he dropped something new.
Then I remembered that 3 years ago (I know this because my phone told me so), I told him I’d review Mambopussykat, which I never did.
Something I learned about Angel is that he was Madonna’s backup dancer on the Who’s That Girl tour. He’s my age but doesn’t look it. He’s a far better hustler than I am, for sure, but he’s also a showman and I’m an author who wants to stay in her garret and write8 unless an occasional cocktail party is involved.
Look, if you’re not into dancing, Latin ballroom, Latin music,9 or fun, this is not for you. Maybe. I think this guy could persuade you to at least try it.
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1. “Jazz” has fuck-all to do with it.
2. Not that, either.
3. Phil Collins, David Bowie (except for that Goblin King thing), Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Axl Rose, Aaron Neville, Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits, Prince, Bonnie Tyler, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Billie Holiday, Cyndi Lauper. No, I don’t know why I love Geddy Lee, Mark Sandman, Brian Setzer, Kim Carnes, Pat Benatar, or Amy Winehouse.
4. Dance first, fuck later.
5. Think Brian Setzer in the 1980s. Stop it with “punk.” That is not.
6. If you admire someone’s work, tell them. If they’re busking and they make you stop to watch/listen, pay them. This is my policy, even if they’re super-megastars.
7. Look, I really don’t care how bad/sappy/cringe a book/film/play/song is, if it entertained me and didn’t annoy me, the artist did his job, and that makes me happy.
8. Stereotypes exist for a reason.
9. But why wouldn’t you be?
10. No, I’m not posting his phone number.