Monica Rocha – The Chicano EP 45 (Last Bastion) 7″ Vinyl

For LB05, debuting on vinyl and this three track EP, we have the Chicano Soul /Brown eyed Soul/low-rider sound of Monica Rocha plus her fabulous duet with Malik Malo!

Limited to 300 with picture sleeve – there will be no repress.

Originally pioneered by artists from San Antonio, Texas “Chicano Soul” (a fusion of Mexican-American and Black musical cultures) has always had an enthusiastic audience among Latino /Hispanic communities throughout the southwestern United States. These are slow jams from the moment when doo-wop morphed into soul. Mostly pleading and woebegone, they’re wrenching and transcendent in the way the best soul music always has been.

There’s now a new Californian movement of low-rider oldies music and resurgence in the Chicano Soul sound today with Monica and Malik.

The EP opens with ‘Hello stranger’ produced and arranged by Edward ‘E-Dub’ Rios. Monica dueting with Malik and delivering their trademark ‘Chicano’ magic on a track originally released by Barbara Lewis as a soul 45 in 1963. It was written by Barbara herself a few years earlier.

Continuing on the A side is ,‘The One Who Really Loves You’ again infused with that Chicano /low-rider style, E-Dub’s production with Monica’s vocals transforming this Smokey Robinson penned 1962 Mary Wells soul classic to stunning effect.

‘Tonight Is The Night’ on the flip has Monica with a sultry and evocative mid tempo recording reimagining Betty Wright’s 1974 sophisticated, smooth and polished studio production synonymous with that formative disco era. It’s stripped away and taken back a decade. Tantalising Lo-fi perfection with vocal intensity against a snare drum backbeat and in doing so, creating a soundtrack for evenings of low-rider music and gatherings of 50s vintage cars under the California sun. – Last Bastion