Adrian Quesada – Boleros Psicodelicos (Vinyl)

About 20 years ago, guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder Adrian Quesada was driving in his home base of Austin, Texas when the 1975 balada classic Esclavo y Amo by Peruvian band Los Pasteles Verdes played on a local AM station. Quesada was mesmerized by the songs dark, baroque melodrama.

I swear to God, I had to pull over because I had never heard anything like it, he recalls with a laugh. I was like, what the hell is this? Sounds like a romantic breakup on LSD. It completely, literally blew my mind. I then went to a record store that sold mostly Regional Mexican, got a Greatest Hits compilation and listened to it for many nights in a row. The music was sinister, so overly dramatic in a super funky way that sounded like a hip-hop sample. I almost expected Wu-Tang Clan to come on and start rapping.

What Quesada had discovered was the sophisticated and slightly delirious cultural movement of balada music that blossomed throughout Latin America between the late 60s and early 70s. A refined collision of bossa nova smoothness, Beatlesque psychedelia and torrid boleropathos, balada used art-pop instrumentation (mostly strings and harpsichords) and the warmth of analogue recording to maximum effect. It employed songs about heartbreak and longing as a means to transport the listener to an opulent, cinematic fantasy world.

Now, Quesada has penned a love letter to that golden era through Boleros Psicodlicos, a stunning album that lovingly recreates the specificity of the balada sound, adding a stellar list of guest vocalists, intriguing contemporary touches and just a hint of irony.