Enticing us immediately with layered vocals fused with a refined salsa-hybrid instrumentation, Ozomatli open their latest single Sacude with chants of the title of the track, “Sacude! Sacude! Sacude!“, which translates literally as “shake”!
Ozomatli is an LA-based band that has already won two Grammys. Iconic. Their maraca-shaking latest bop is anthemic, exciting, inspiring and full of sonic delights. We are obsessed.
Asdru Sierra of Ozomatli shared some thoughts on Sacude telling us that the song is about “shaking off toxicity”.
He continues, “Poetically it describes how the guy in the band that plays maracas has something strange in his instrument that rattles funny and throws off his groove. So the maracas are like an extension of our souls in this case. At first a guy in the band that’s his friend tells him there’s something off with him. He points out that he is sick with toxicity and he’s worried. But he needs to deal with it. Then during the chorus, the pregones are the maraca player expelling his toxicity.”
We are in love with the vibe of the song and it has us dancing on our feet and shaking off all of our woes!
Asdru Sierra, who is the song’s vocalist adds, “We all have toxicity in our lives, whether it’s from other people or our own addictions or insecurities, everyone has experienced toxicity.”
“So we all aim to clean out our maracas to get rid of whatever makes it sound bad to continue grooving.”
We love this message and we know that dance is definitely a cure for a lot of us, so we have added Sacude to our New Music Spotlight playlist and have been immersing ourselves in the wider discography of Ozomatli including Mudfootball and Solamente una Vez!
Marching On is their first studio album since the critically acclaimed, 2017 reggae twisted Non-Stop: Mexico to Jamaica in 2017 and marks their debut with new label, Blue Élan Records.
Last year, the band debuted two new singles from the album – the soulful grooves of “Mi Destino,” featuring guests B-Real (Cypress Hill/Prophets of Rage) and vocalist, Gaby Moreno, was featured on KCRW while the freestyle dance party tune, “Fellas” which features Lisa Lisa of Cult Jam fame and the ladies of J.J. Fad, became a sought out duet on tik tok.