People of Earth Breaks Up the Monotony of Living on This Bruised Planet with Colorful, Healing, Party Music
Sizzling salsa, shapely syncopation, and pureness of heart exemplify self-titled debut album
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” — 1 Corinthians 13: 1
Imagine a world of colorful splendor, where every voice mattered, and music could be felt, not just heard. Well, imagine no longer, People of Earth are here and they have a lot to share.
Turn on and bliss out to P.o.E.’s self-titled debut album, which finally dropped on May 5, 2023 after several years of recording around the pandemic.
The bold Global Music Collective, 13-15 members strong, followed up its huge splash in New York City’s thriving Latin, tropical music scene around 2017 with this cumulative debut of solid hits to fit any genre, vibe, and audience.
The Collective comprises vocalists and instrumentalists, or both, who perform songs in tandem, awash in jazz, Latin, and Caribbean inflections in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, redolently reminiscent of the countries they call home: Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Switzerland, Greece, Canada, and the U.S.
The band features singers Ashira Mothersil, Joana Obieta, Ivan Llanes, Raul Rios (trumpet), piano/synth players Carolina Calvache, Ahmed Alom, percussionists Gabriel Globus-Hoenich (director), Keisel Jimenez, Victor Pablo (co-music director), trombonists Malec Heermans, Achilles Llarmakopoulos (listed on website), trumpeter Rachel Therrien, and bassist Ian Stewart.
Their Truth Revolution Records release trips off nine tracks — seven originals and two original takes — under the multi-faceted, multi-lingual umbrella the band likes to call American Timba Music (ATM).
The tracks are heavy with sizzling salsa, shapely Latin-tinged syncopation, Cuban timba energy, electro rumba-rap, piano montunos rhythms, neo-soul, hip-hop, funk, rock, danzón, and bolero…even a little 5th Dimension pop…easy-grooving styles that naturally fall into place whenever People of Earth come together to jam.
Composed by Pablo, the timba-songo “Chiki” welcomes you to the high-energy party vibe with a catchy earworm in the one-liner coro chorus, which band members rally around and make merry with. Ebullient in complex, ever-shifting, high-stepping, staggered rhythms — horns, piano, bump beats — loosely choreographed and designed to compel lots of shimmy-shaking movement, from the band to the audience.
“Shoulda Known Better” by Globus-Hoenich/former member Ayamey Bell could play universally as a call to better understand those not like you, or a jilted lover’s taunting, yearning push-pull plea bargain. The light, lively, almost defiantly fiery vocals, fore and aft, tell the story (“do you want me, want me, but I don’t need you, need you”) over a dance track of a Cuban timba rhythm that seems to work at cross purposes.
While singing (in English) of heartbreak, like a narrator waiting for the beat, without an ounce of sadness, the horns and drums can’t help but prematurely lift the female vocalist and the listener out of the funk, coaxing us to forgive, forget, and dance it out before the first few verses have a chance to untangle…. Dancing for dancing’s sake.
The tune almost wants to be sung in the soft, supple, rounded lyricism of Spanish or Portuguese to better fit the forever flow and sway of the music, a minor issue that will resurface later on.
Everything — from the vocal breadth, tone, and phrasing, to the toned-down background music of Llanes’ “La Mejor Mujer (The Best Woman)” — fits well together. With all the filigreed rhythm wrapped up in percussive breakdancing, salsa piano surges, and a horn section dying to celebrate at every turn, the ballad maintains an honor of gravity with just the right dose of complex, gripping interest.
It helps that Llanes is joined at the end by a 5th Dimension-worthy calling — contrasting solo to choral dynamics — that hoists this track from a global rave at the Gorge to a jazz-deferred difference, straight out the Blue Note.
The Spanish-sung “Piloto (Pilot)” digs percussively, rhythmically deep and intense, thanks to guest plena musicians (who did their thing on location in Puerto Rico), a soul-stirring bass dropping in when it means the most, a solo-to-choir vocal riser that repeats to different, swoop-and-swerve effects, and composer Pablo’s ear for inventive musical corner turns.
Djavan’s “Te Devoro (I devour you),” arranged by Globus-Hoenich, finds its substance in the almost ‘70s funk of the collective’s horn section. Acclaimed Bahian singer Marcos Costa (formerly of Ilê Aiyê) soars over nostalgic waves with earnest, hopeful, boyish innocence, buoyed by grounding background vocals — in lyrical, ocean-swirling Portuguese no less.
“Mambo” from the Broadway musical-turned-movie “West Side Story” is just a fun, impressive romp, as horns and percussion combine, split into infinity, and reposition themselves in slide-shifting, working order.
Arranger Globus-Hoenich zeroes in on the meaty main course — the fatty barbacoa, the crucial part that audiences around the world most respond to — that entrancing, beyond-cool dancing coda arcing around the famous group shout, “Mambo!” Credit to British trumpeter Bryan Davis for sounding out every exuberant inflection to bursting.
Swiss singer Joana Obieta infuses her own solo-to-musical-collective R&B story in “Wolf Mother” before the horns swoop in to save the day, weaving in and out of modern soul, hip-hop, and rock with traditional danzón and bolero. Again, the song seems to want to play in Spanish or Portuguese, not English; less chunky, clunky adage to push against, more curvaceous, gauzy seams.
“Un Ratito (a while)” by Pablo involves three singers melding yin/yang harmony in an electro-rumba-rap and a gently coasting up-and-down roller coaster of a timba salsa. Hushed, speaking-to-singing voices and latte-simmering horns rise and fall, before settling together in a circular dash, threatening another rabble-rousing party.
“Te doy mi clave pa seducirte, mi piano pa’ descargar, y los metales para la boda, te coje en la coda — I give you my claves to seduce you, my piano to jam, the brass for the wedding, I’ll get you in the end.”
“La Coda,” another Globus-Hoenich composition ends the album in big band bombastic style, proper timba and sweet-talking, lyrical come-ons all over the place. A lot of talking, some singing around ascending horn-piano bust-ups that grow louder, stronger, and take over, compelling everyone sitting around the record-playing fire to get up, dance, and love the one you’re with…a fine bookend to the cheeky “Chiki” opener.
Cuban lead singer Ivan Llanes said it best in the group’s mini-documentary (linked below): “People of Earth is a band, it’s a collective of sisters and brothers…. Every time we get together, we really try to deliver our best onstage, in the studio, in rehearsal. We all love music and we believe, we really want to touch hearts.”