New label on the block
20 February, 2025Sounds and Colours is happy to announce the birth of a new European independent record label tirelessly dedicated to the task of finding and reviving long-lost music from the Latin world. The label in question is SME (Sometimes Music Espana), it’s based in Madrid and run by Paul Hurtado, a self-styled “popular music lover”, and the mission it has chosen to accept is to boldly reissue out-of-print the Latin American scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
SME has just kicked off its 2025 activities with B.O.V. Dombe, an album originally released on the Auris label in 1978 by Raíces, a quintet made up of musicians from either side of the River Plate that separates Argentina from Uruguay, Buenos Aires from Montevideo. The mix of nationalities made for a mix of genres, with Uruguayan candombe rhythms helping to underpin elements of rock, soul and jazz in a way that made me think (rather laterally) of a very early version of Santana performing something like Albert King’s “As The Years Go Passing By” at the Fillmore West. It’s a nicely put-together and worthwhile reissue of something that deserves to be kept in the public domain. Here’s the title track, which should whet your appetite for the full album. We await developments from Madrid with interest.
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