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Review: Sidestepper, 'Supernatural Love'

Note: NPR's First Listen audio comes down after the album is released. However, you can still listen with the Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page.


<em>Supernatural Love</em>
/ Courtesy of the artist
/
Courtesy of the artist
Supernatural Love

It's hard to keep a good idea down. In 1996, Richard Blair and Sidestepper introduced their innovative mix of Afro-Colombian and pop music to a Colombian scene that was about to explode onto the world stage.

The masterminds behind Bomba Estereo and the rappers in Choc Quib Town have said that Sidestepper's music opened their minds to the possibilities of ignoring boundaries and mining Afro-Colombian musical traditions. Now, Blair has reassembled Sidestepper for a new album, Supernatural Love, and it's hardly a nostalgic look back. Instead, it shimmers and percolates with guitars and Afro-Colombian percussion, it's sung in Spanish and English, it looks forward constantly and, once again, it illuminates a musical path likely to influence the next generation of Colombian innovators.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Felix Contreras
Felix Contreras is co-creator and host of Alt.Latino, NPR's pioneering radio show and podcast celebrating Latin music and culture since 2010.