Messenger Boy

He combines afrobeat and freestyle like no other, and, calling electro music his “heartbeat,” Chico gives it all he’s got in his new album Analog Drift.

As a child, he grew up in a very musical Cuban family (is there anything BUT that in the Caribbean?). In the ’70s and ’80s in New York City, while all his friends wanted to do was run through the denizen that was Hell’s Kitchen, he wasn’t allowed to, so Man found himself always digging through the record crates at LP stores, passing hour after hour listening to the greats.

Fast forward thirty years, and in celebration of Analog Digital, Chico plays off of his love of old-school, both with the album title and the laid-back and transporting sound he creates. The album was released this fall on Wax Poetics.

He played live in KCRW studios in Santa Monica, for “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” and he spoke about his favorite aspects of playing mind-blowing music for so many years. “Seeing people slowly letting go” gives him the deepest satisfaction, and that’s become one of the most important things for him to experience/influence in his shows.

Download his album as an MP3, or pick in up on CD or double LP.