Ayo

Editors’ Notes The beat of cumbia still echoes through Bomba Estéreo’s grooves, but the Colombian band also combs the world to create the offbeat bangers of Ayo. The trio’s fifth album finds room for fizzy Jamaican dancehall recast as 8-bit video-game music (“Flower Power”), fluttering Middle Eastern strings wedded to surprisingly hard beats (“Duele”), and tart sax hooks straight out of African jazz (“Internacionales”). Blurring the lines between politics and pop, the trio reaches across sonic boundaries and cultural borders, creating experimental party music for dancers everywhere.