Pericos & Friends

If back in 1985 someone had told Los Pericos that they would be celebrating their 25th anniversary making a record with all of their Jamaican idols, they would have laughed their heads off. Indeed, when the band formed in 1985 the odds that a band from Argentina would make it to the international reggae scene were abysmal, not in the least because at the time reggae was a genre virtually unknown in their own country. And yet, fast forward to 2011 and behold Pericos & Friends, a collection of newly recorded versions of the band's hits, each featuring one or more guest artists, including reggae legends Toots Hibbert, the Skatalites, the Wailers, Mykal Rose, Ali Campbell, Pato Banton, Sly & Robbie, and Gregory Isaacs, as well as Latin American colleagues such as Cidade Negra, Os Paralamas do Sucesso's Herbert Vianna, Gondwana, No Te Va Gustar, and Molotov's Tito Fuentes, among others. Life has not always been this rosy for Los Pericos, however, and the scars left by the departure of main singer Bahiano in 2004 have not healed well. Since then, the band has released two studio albums with guitarist Juanchi Baleirón taking over vocal duties. So far it has been a moderately successful attempt to continue their career without their most distinctive element, which was made easier by performing new material. Revisiting their standards, on the other hand, makes direct comparisons between Bahiano and Baleirón utterly unavoidable -- much to the detriment of the latter, who is merely an adequate replacement, whereas Bahiano is a terrific reggae singer. Posed with a tricky question -- should we bravely try something different, or stick to imitating the way we used to sound with Bahiano? -- the answer still appears dubious. The new versions work much better when the song is either tackled for the first time, as in the fine covers of "Iron Lion Zion" and "Natural Mystic," or when they are substantially reworked, as in the slower, de-electrified take on "Casi Nunca Lo Ves," the only one of their hits that can claim to better the original. Otherwise, when they stay close to the source, with Baleirón aping Bahiano's mannerisms (such as the staccato, repeated vowels in "Mucha Experiencia": "la-a-a-a-do"), they run the risk of sounding like an ace Los Pericos tribute band rather than Los Pericos covering themselves!