Some Tracks from Chucheria, Nabumla, and Bloom

01 Patagonia

02 Zio Pepe

05 Embers

06 Buddhas Are We (Pick 'n' Mix)

07 The Question

08 Naked In The Sunshine

09 Through The Eyes

10 Devil

11 Desperado Dan

12 Malavita Part 1

13 Malavita Part 2

14 The Picture

Taken Fron Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cucina

La Cucina was an English roots style band of the 1990s, that went under the tagline of "accordion-driven funky neapolitan rockers". Although they were based in the south of England, their music was an amalgam of Southern Italian folk songs and disco and salsa beats. They were famed at the time for their wild concerts, and lack of wild living - on arrival in a new town, two members of the band would head for the local library. (The Bass-Player would go to the dressing room and drink the whole rider).

They brought out a series of cassettes, in which they explored Neapolitan music. Later, they produced 3 CDs in which the instrumentation and production is of a much more contemporary nature, with influences such as Tom Waits and Madness. They played throughout the United Kingdom, as well as France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

In 1996 they visited Jordan to play at the wedding of one of the granddaughters of King Hussein. This featured the new band members on the CD Bloom.

Their third album Bloom (CD) (1997), completed after the departure of Owain Clarke and the introduction of the songwriting partnership of Paul Goodall and Tom Hazell, contains several collaborations with Najma Akhtar of Robert Plant & Jimmy Page fame, on their MTV Special "Unplugged" performance and their No Quarter Album (2001)

Reviewed by Suzanne Abecassis

What have we got here? A Bulgarian gypsy band, a South American latin orchestra or a British pop group? The answer must be all and neither. 

The group in question is La Cucina from Great Britain and the music on their new album 'Nabúmla', released in the beginning of March, as the follow up to their debut album 'Chuchería', is a mixture of lively latin rhythms, melancholic gypsy tunes and pop-jazz fusions with a twist of roots and world music.

The lyrics are performed in British English on all the tracks except on 'Villa Laterno' and 'Naked in the Sunshine' which are in both English and Spanish. The latter is a cheerful singalong, which could easily be a holiday hit in the coming summer. All the tracks, though, have catching lyrics and are originals from the whole band (five members). 

Over the past year they've been performed on the stages of Glastonbury, Womad and Sidmouth.

The single 'Buddhas Are We' consists of two versions of the titel song, 'L'Americana' and 'Windy Windy Dance Night', and it gives a good impression of the band and their musical style. 

If you want to cheer yourself up one day, or you're going to have a party, La Cucina's music is definitely the kind to put on the CD player. It is almost impossible to keep your body still when their music comes pouring out of the loudspeakers.

This review is published on print in Djembe Magazine, no. 16, April 1996.

Discography

La Luna Spinosa (cassette) (1989)
Morte Accidentale De Musiciste (cassette) (1990)
Kemado (cassette) (1992)
Chucheria (CD) (1994)
Nabumla! (CD) (1996)
Bloom (CD) (1997)

Personnel

Eliseo D'Agostino; accordion
Owain Clarke; guitar and vocals
Dylan Clarke; double bass
Scott Tobin; Drums and percussion
Roberto Stocchiverdi; congas
Jem Mooreshead: Guitar (Sometimes)

La Cucina 1996 and the album Bloom

Eliseo D'Agostino; accordion
Dylan Clarke; double bass
Scott Tobin; Drums and percussion
Roberto Stocchiverdi; congas
Paul Goodall; vocals and guitar
Tom Hazell; guitar

Taken from Keep Media

Likened to everyone from Les Negresses Vertes to Madness, La Cucina were a fun and fundamental plank in the development of UK roots music of the early 90s. They were formed in Southampton, England, in 1988, from the ashes of indie band Who's In The Kitchen?. Originally a trio of Owain Clarke (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Dylan Clarke (bass/vocals) and Eliseo D'Agostino (accordion), they concentrated on recreating Neopolitan-styled songs. 

However, after performing as a seven piece at a Southampton pub, with Scott Tobin (drums, once a part-time member of the Levellers), Jock Tyldesley (fiddle) and a Sikh priest on tablas, they decided that the band needed to have a more eclectic musical foothold. Enthusiastic audience receptions confirmed that the more dance-orientated their sound was, the better. Tobin joined on a permanent basis, with Rob Greenstock (conga; ex-Steam Kings) completing the line-up in October 1991 (Tyldesley and Dylan Clarke also played with local friends the Flatville Aces, but Clarke opted for La Cucina because of the greater opportunities for songwriting). They side-stepped musical categorisation by employing Cajun fiddle alongside the percussive force of rave music, Latin American piano and skewed, highly original songs roughly in the spirit of Neopolitan standards. ...

Taken from Djembe.dk

La Cucina

Popular tracks