Cuba

Rodney Anonymous vs. the World

by Rodney Anonymous

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Published: May 8, 2007

Artist: Miguel "Angá" Diaz

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Album: Echu Mingua

Country of Origin: Cuba

Let's just get this out of the way: Che Guevara was not a hero. He was a totalitarian scumbag who created Cuba's system of labor camps and signed off on over 500 death warrants saying, "To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary." "Trustafarians" need to burn their Che T-shirts and learn about dissident Cuban poet Raúl Rivero.

The death of Cuban-born conga master Miguel "Angá" Diaz, who passed away this August in Barcelona of a heart attack at the age of 45, ranks up there with the rape of the Sabine women, the sinking of the Titanic and the stabbing of Cheaters host Joey Greco as one of the greatest tragedies in human history because humanity will forever be denied the off-kilter genius that makes Echu Mingua (World Circuit/Nonesuch) such a rare treat. The odd mixture of Cuban percussion, jazz piano and curiously placed samples sounds as if it were recorded in someone's two-car garage. Do you remember that episode of I Love Lucy when Ricky Ricardo ate an entire sheet of blotter acid and led his band in a wild jam session that culminated in the sacrifice of Fred and Ethel Mertz to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl? Of course you don't, because it never happened. But if it had, it would've sounded exactly like Echu Mingua.

If the CD has one fault, it's that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Taken together, the 13 tracks dovetail perfectly to form what could almost be mistaken for one long, eccentric improvised piece. It's not that the songs can't stand on their own; it's just that sometimes you need to drink the entire case of beer in one sitting before you see the big picture. "Angá" Diaz saw that big picture.

The U.S. currently provides a safe refuge for Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who has been connected to the 1976 downing of a civilian airliner as well as a series of bombings in Havana that took place in 1997. If our government can't find the cojones to deport him, the least we could do is stick this murderous terrortard on the no-fly list.

www.rodneyanonymous.com is a terrortard-free zone.

 

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