Byron Gonzalez on April 21st, 2021

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Leave your worries at the door and get ready to dance like you’re at cumbia night at downtown L.A.’s La Cita, pre-pandemic. Today, the Inland Empire-based, Caribbean-cumbia-tropical outfit QUITAPENAS releases “Dos Mangos” featuring Eddika Edulé Organista, vocalist for El Haru Kuroi and Yanga.

For many folks during this pandemic, traveling to a tropical getaway is but a mere daydream while waiting for the next Zoom meeting to start. But through the power of music, this five-piece outfit helps those willing to listen take a mental escape far, far away to sun-smooched beaches filled with miles of silky smooth sand while palm trees sway in the timid, cooling winds of paradise — and, let’s not forget, all the while being served bottomless mangonadas (A reference for all you Angelenos reading this).

“Dos Mangos” is the follow-up single to this year’s single, “Los Globos,” and 2019’s “Tigrada” album. And much like many of their releases, this new tropical escape plays homage to the musical history of its influences. These forward-thinking musicians never forget their roots and mix many Afro-Latin beats, sounds and rhythms from Angola, Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

Because of the pandemic, the group had to continue making music individually from their home, but the outcome feels and sounds as united as ever. It’s a song that sounds effortless in its creation but has the energy, heart and respect for the ancestors who influenced the sound permeating out of their instruments.

“With this song, we were reaching towards one of our influences,” Daniel Gomez says, “Emilia La Niña Herrera, a pioneer in Colombian Champeta. In this song, we leaned into Afro-Colombian influences and fused them with electronic music. Lyrically the song is an homage to La Niña’s catalog of music and her life story.”

||| Stream: “Dos Mangos” and “Los Globos”

||| Previously: “Te Adoro”