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Mar 30, 2022 Web Exclusive By Anthony Mark Happel

With a tongue-in-cheek moniker like Los Bitchos you might think you know what this band is all about at first glance. Perhaps, a decidedly unserious and sarcastic hardcore band or a sloppy garage-noise unit, made up of dudes. Au contraire mon frere, you would be sorely mistaken. According to their website, they are “four gals from the underground realms of London, tripping out on Tequila and Cumbia.” They are that, and actually a lot more than that, and when you hear their music the name makes more sense on several levels.

What they are, in actuality, is a smart and talented, and fresh sounding, cosmopolitan instrumental unit that already deserves to be included in the exclusive club that boasts members like Martin Denny and The Raybeats, gender notwithstanding. Stylized, but not overly so, with a keen sense of melody, arrangement, and flow, their songs coax you toward them with flourishes that bust out of the box and call up all sorts of tonal influences from ’60s dance music and soul to ’70s disco to exotica to surf to tropicalia and beyond, and they don’t have to accost you with overtly frazzled energy or nonsense.

Their aesthetic is refined and tasteful, musically compelling, but also as fun as a Mexican birthday party. They pull off something that is really hard to do and they do it well, with every song possessing itself and standing alone. It’s global dance rock that celebrates the past and is knowingly retro without being forced. In fact, it feels very intercontinental post-mod and present, and universal. From the funky ’60s flavor of “Las Panteras” to the quasi-prog rock of closer “Lindsey Goes to Mykonos” the whole shebang is very well-rendered and highly entertaining. Highly recommended. (www.losbitchos.com)

Author rating: 7/10