Artist: Acopladitos
Album: Acopladitos y la máquina de melodías (The Melody Machine)
Age Range: 2 through 6
Description: Amidst the interest in Spanish-language kindie music over the past 2-3 years there's been a greater level of diversity in such music. From the Spanish indie-pop of minimusica, to the retro-pop of Moona Luna, to Lucky Diaz's melding of indie-rock and Tejano on his Spanish language disks, there's a variety of sounds that go way beyond the more traditional sounds. The New York based classes from Acopladitos (Angélica Negrón, Noraliz Ruiz and Tatiana Arocha) are part of that trend. Their first disk included songs with simple lyrics about letters and counting and the like, attached to bleeps and bloops and nifty electronic melodies. Their latest album is, well, an instrumental album. So that part about "Spanish language" doesn't apply here, and, really, this sounds as much like Elska or Skyjafletta, as it does those modern Spanish popsters listed above, and certainly more than Jose-Luis Orozco, for example. The melodies are still fun (I particularly like "La banda en marcha," suitable for marches around the living room), and no Spanish is necessary.
The 24-minute album will appeal most to kids ages 2 through 7. You can stream the entire album here. These tracks will fit great slotted into your afternoon preschool dance parties. It might not be Spanish kindie, but it is fun. Recommended.
