Issued as part of Analog Africa's excellent 'Dance Edition' series, Y Su Conjunto—a collection of scarce recordings by Peruvian guitar innovator Berardo Hernandez known to most by his stage name of Manzanita—places the artist's mellifluous six-string expeditions front-and-centre in an auditory saga of infectious rhythms, easy-going chords and personable melodies.
Recorded between 1971 and 1974, the fourteen often-brief compositions included here are instrumental in majority, with many serving chiefly as platforms by which Manzanita could make his considerable instrumental abilities known. Though a well-established favourite for many Peruvian listeners in the '60s and '70s, Manzanita's name is perhaps less likely to be of familiarity to many Western listeners. If that is indeed the case, then it'd certainly be through no fault in the music he produced. Indeed, as this collection proves, Manzanita and his band bore a raw talent that surely few could argue with. It's therefore a boon that Germany's archival reissue experts Analog Africa have brought this lively, vivacious music to a contemporary global audience.
Packaged with the kind of impeccable style that long-term followers of Analog Africa's output will certainly have come to expect of the label, it would be downright unreasonable to ask of any reissue better presentation than that offered here. Housed in a handsome gatefold cover wrought from sturdy textured card, Y Su Conjunto offers a striking example of the idiosyncratic and charming visual aesthetic that has so long served as the label's calling card.
With a broad spine boasting bold text, it'll certainly never be a task to pick this particular title out from even the busiest of shelves and, with generous liner notes and rare images of the artist plastered across the inner-gatefold spread, there's no denying that the label have absolutely made the most of the gatefold cover's potential. Just as impressively, the barcode has been placed on a hype sticker attached to the shrinkwrap, rather than having been printed on the cover itself. Though this may seem like a small gesture to some, far too great a number of contemporary vinyl releases suffer from printed barcodes that mar the aesthetic of their art-direction, so we're always happy to praise any release that avoids that particular pitfall.
Pressed to a stout slab of roughly mid-weight black vinyl, the LP itself has been manufactured by Germany's Optimal Media, an outfit that, having produced most (if not all) of Analog Africa's prior vinyl output, certainly has nothing if not an established track-record with the label. Reflective of that, our example of Y Su Conjunto is essentially without fault; the noise floor is low and our copy likewise bears no discernible auditory defects, resulting in a rich listening experience free of interruption.
The disc itself also sits flat on the platter in the case of our copy, being free of the warping that can so-often plague entire batches of newly-pressed LPs (though never, it should be said, in the case of any Analog Africa releases we've seen). A collection of compositions that do much to expose Manzanita's remarkable abilities to a new audience, Y Su Conjunto marks another excellent venture from one of music's most consistently rewarding labels. Those with an ear for fluid six-string action, joyful rhythms and heady compositional atmospherics would do well seek this title out immediately.
