Kanaku Y El Tigre – Quema Quema Quema

I've never been the sort of person who has obsessed over lyrics and found them to be the core element of the song, for me it's always been the music that has drawn me in and any further meaning in inferred a little later down the line. Perhaps that's why I'm so fond of music from other cultures – there's no chance of me picking up on any of the subtleties of lyrical genius or despair and I'm simply able to bathe in the sweet musical glory.

Title track aside, that's exactly what I was able to do with this glorious album from Kanaku Y El Tigre as the Peruvian sounds fill the corridors of R$N Towers while everyone else is off at one festival or another. Within a matter of minutes our Shoreditch hub was turned into a brand new Peruvian embassy as the only sense of Englishness that remains is the cup of Earl Grey by my side. The freedom that comes by opening up your ears, and indeed your soul, to music from somewhere so detached from your present being allows the tension to flow away from your shoulders as the world becomes a significantly more joyful place.

From start to finish the album fills you with positive vibes, even the grumpiest of people would have trouble not tapping their feet along at the very least. There's something so delightfully infectious about South American rhythms that has always made the continent seem like a shining beacon of cultural awareness and appreciation, much more interesting than your London streets filled with rushed commuters. The pounding of a bass drum is so much more satisfying than the relentless rhythms of a struggling tube carriage and, if every journey I ever took sounded like 'Nunca Mi Perdi' I'd never stand still for even a second.

Why bother sticking around for the daily grind when you can transport yourself to what feels like another world by just closing your eyes and opening your ears? This is sheer paradise my friend, won't you join me?

Quema Quema Quema is out now via Tiger's Milk Records/Strut Records.