Roots by Dennis Cruz
A celebration of House music with latin flavours of salsa and boompty
Brazenly wearing his influences on his sleeve, Spanish DJ and producer Dennis Cruz has turned in a decent debut album for Damian Lazarus's Crosstown Rebels label. Built on various shades of House all ten tracks are uniquely flavoured with specific instrumentation and/or a vocalist style, making the whole affair rather entertaining.
With a general latin-fuelled, boompty vibe many of the tracks work due to their excellent guest vocalists (the only exception is Bend with it's somewhat irritating vocal snippet). My fav though is Los Tamales with its salsa piano loops and classy vocals by Yazaneth. Lee Scratch Perry also makes a low-key appearance on Go Down.