Locos Por Juana's Evolucion EP

​To close out the year, Crossfade is picking out its favorite albums by 305 artists. Read the full list of Miami's Best Albums of 2010 here.

Locos Por Juana
Evolucion EP
(La Juana Productions)

If you look up evolution in the dictionary, it's defined as any process of growth or development.

So if you've listened to Locos Por Juana's Evolucion EP, which dropped in late summer, you know the band's members weren't blowing smoke up their own asses with the title.

This release is Locos' first since 2008's Grammy-nominated full-length album, La Verdad. And it more than lives up to the promise of "growth or development." Each and every one of the EP's seven tracks tell a tale of progress for one of Miami's seminal bands.

Mr. Pauer's remix of "Chimosa"

Core members Itagui Correa, Mark Kondrat, and Javier "Lakambre" Delgado have been at this for a long time. And over the years, they've perfected a personal version of Miami's sound: Latin rhythms like cumbia and champeta simmer with roots reggae, funk, and other far flung styles that have all been stuffed into Locos' stylistic melting pot.

On Evolucion, Correa, Kondrat, and Delgado sate their natural curiosity by exploring new avenues that they'd only cursorily explored in the past, like certain varieties of electro usually found in side project Afro-Kumbé.

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