All twenty-two tracks by these Uruguayan legends, whose line-up
includes members of Totem and Limonada, and features the compositional
abilities of candombe legend Ruben Rada, and his alter-ego,
poet/panhandler and acid casualty Eduardo Mateo. El Kinto began their
brief but eventful life in music playing in the dark shadows at Orfeo
Negro (Black Orpheus), a night club near the Portones de Carrasco in
Montevideo, Uruguay. Inspired by the way the Tropicalistas like Os
Mutantes were transforming the pop music of Brazil, El Kinto embraced
their own native music forms—but, as always, they went a step further:
yes, they integrated candombe and bossa nova into beat music, but they
also added their own notion of “psicodelics.” They experimented with
newness in all its variety—new sounds from their guitars, new types of
vocal delivery, new ways of striking the drums (with little brooms, with
gavels or with the hands), all very uncommon in rock music.
As one journalist noted in 1969, “El Kinto, directed by the brilliant
Mateo, and amplified to the maximum… creates a frenzy of rhythmic music
in which—with force and conviction—pure wave ‘beat’ is synthesized with
the warmth of the African drums.” The result of the group’s tireless
experiments is music which sounds fresh and engaging today. In a world
dominated by the commercialization of everything—including (although it
is difficult to comprehend)—the arts, all we can say is, thank god for
El Kinto!
