Galactic - Ya-Ka-May (2009)

Eric Salt recommended this a few years back; I wrote a review for it and five other albums (including Abraham Inc. and Frank Zappa), which was lost due to a combination of an accidental deletion and general blogspot idiocy.  (Probably more operator error, to be honest.)  I was depressed enough to avoid re-reviewing this until now.  (Probably more lazy, to be honest.)

In any case, this starts off as a Cuban party, then turns into r and b/funk/pop/conga reality.  The sounds are very smartly placed; the musical tone is generally happy and uplifting, but contains both remorse and at times even anger.  They're agnostic musically, which means they will add touches of any musical style to move the narrative along.  And it's clearly a melting pot of musicians and vocalists that drive the whole thing forward, so each song sounds a little different.

Galactic - Heart of Steel

It's a great collaborative and collective effort, without mis-steps along the way.  Music is strong like bull.

CD Placement Rating: Portable CD Case.

- Snilch