Mexican-Argentinean group Sonido Gallo Negro make largely instrumental music steeped in 70s Peruvian cumbia and refracted through a psychedelic lens colored by whatever catches their fancy. With each of the studio albums they’ve released since forming in 2010, the Mexico City–based band have added more sounds to their sound—you’re as likely to catch nods to spaghetti-western film scores and space-age kitsch as you are to hear fuzzed-out desert grooves, surfy guitar, and traditional rhythms from across South America and the Caribbean. They don’t limit themselves to one hemisphere, either: On 2018’s Mambo Cósmico, they incorporate elements from the Middle East and Africa. Sonido Gallo Negro expertly synthesize these disparate influences into alluring, cosmic tunes that make perfect dance-floor fuel. As eclectic and quirky as their original material can get, they’re first and foremost a good-time band, and they’ve also covered the B-52s’ “Planet Claire” and the theme song from The X-Files. That said, much of the joy in Sonido Gallo Negro’s music comes from embracing their heritage of resistance and resilience, which helps empower others to carry on the good fight. On the 2022 album Paganismo, the song “Yanga” (with gorgeous guest vocals from Sylvie Henry) pays tribute to 16th-century revolutionary Gaspar Yanga, who led a group of enslaved Africans out of captivity to establish their own community. Last year, Sonido Gallo Negro hit it out of the park again with the theremin-draped single “Pañuelo de Seda” (“Silk Scarf”), whose slinky, rock-solid groove sometimes sounds like the score to a clandestine desert rendezvous and sometimes sounds like carnival music for the crew of a flying saucer.
Sonido Gallo Negro Rudy De Anda opens. Fri 3/28, 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20, 21+