- Like many followers of the timeless electro rhythm, Alpha 606, AKA Armando Martinez, imbues his TR-808 funk with a broad mythos. While Drexciya processed Afrofuturist ideas through their sci-fi backstory, Martinez looks closer to his Miami home for narrative. Born in Miami, Martinez is the son of Cuban immigrants. His alias refers to both the anti-regime dissident group Alpha 66 and the Roland TR-606 drum machine, and his music combines Afro-Cuban percussion, Miami bass and Detroit electro. But even without that context, or the knowledge of Martinez's study of Santeria ritual percussion, Alpha 606's debut LP, Afro-Cuban Electronics, stands on its own. It's a varied journey in supple electro, imbuing the genre's boom-chick with the drama of moonlit escape.
Like Underground Resistance, Martinez wants to make radical music you can dance to. Cuts like "Shake" are all twitchy funk and spanning pads, bringing the expansive early productions of Anthony Rother to mind. "Gauges" slows things down to 113 BPM, letting the massive hand-percussion shine amongst the skeletal Roland sequences. The "Alternate Jam" version of "Guajiro" is straight-up Detroit business: stark minimalism anchored by a splashy snare.
With the introduction of vocals, Afro-Cuban Electronics reveals its concept: an escape from Castro's repressive regime. "Engineered Flotation Device" uses a talkbox for its chanted chorus: "Engineered flotation device / Get it ready we leave tonight." "Defection" explains their motivation for leaving. "Defection was our only choice," a deep robotic voice intones. "It all happened when you first oppressed our voice."
After starting with almost an album's worth of top-notch electro, followed by some loose storytelling, Martinez seems unsure where to go. "Dahomey" plods along, a fairly by-the-numbers jam where for the first time the hand percussion is distracting. "Black Mermaid" is little more than a wonky bassline and an electro-acoustic drum melange that feels less novel near the album's end.
But there are still some surprises. The last two tracks possess a brightness that might reflect seeing Cuba fade into the distance. Their pounding low-end is toned down—on "Endangered Cuban Crocodile" and "Boatlift," the compression turns perfectly interlocking parts into a beautiful mess of optimistic tones. These two tracks, especially "Boatlift," could open the Panorama Bar blinds, but they seem to speak to something larger than an ecstatic night out. Afro-Cuban Electronics is the culmination of Martinez's work, and its quality is further proof that marginalized voices are among the most vital in a hedonistic world.
Tracklist01. Afriba
02. Armambo
03. Shake
04. 808 Trax
05. Gauges
06. Whale Memory
07. Guajiro (Alternate Jam)
08. Engineered Flotation Device
09. Defection
10. Dahomey
11. Black Mermaid
12. Endangered Cuban Crocodile
13. Boatlift