Chicano Batman, a quartet from Los Angeles, embrace a kind of cultural ricochet effect, playing fuzzed-out soul with pan-Latin grooves and rhythms that reflect and demonstrate their Mexican, Central and South American heritage, but with musical roots pointing back to Curtis Mayfield and James Brown. If the music of the African diaspora boomerangs all over the world - picking up bits of regional flavour wherever locals develop a taste for jazz, blues, gospel, reggae and other styles - then certainly, Chicano Batman’s sound is steeped in Tropic?lia from Brazil, Peruvian psych-rock and Mexican garage jams, as well as American soul. The styles all reflect off each other in one way or another. The band makes excellent use of wah-wahs, overdriven organ and generally retro effects, playing dance-friendly music that is still totally 21st-century American.
