Los Amigos - Arepa 3000

Arepa 3000 is a studio album by acid jazz band Los Amigos Invisibles.It was released in 2000 on Luaka Bop and re-issued exclusively for RSD.

“We’re a dance band,” says Jose Luis Pardo, the guitarist for Los Amigos Invisibles. Tuned into groove culture from Detroit to London to Tokyo — thanks to the Internet and a busy tour schedule — the Amigos began work on their new album AREPA 3000: A VENEZUELAN JOURNEY INTO SPACE with a disco sensibility. Admiring French DJ/producers the band sought a heavier house sound in contrast to the retro and lounge elements of THE NEW SOUND OF THE VENEZUELAN GOZADERA. “The lounge thing sounds more Japanese,” says Jose Luis. “The house sound is fresher, the disco songs we do sound more like that. The album is more electronic in certain ways.”

Since their ground-breaking US debut the Amigos have lived a double life. In their hometown of Caracas, Venezuela, they’ve hosted underground club nights for years (the most recent called ‘Super Sancocho Variety’). Then, insouciant single-entendre songs like “Sexy” and the doggy-style anthem “Ponerte En Cuatro” landed them on MTV and radio, and before long, the six young men found themselves pop idols. It wasn’t hard, but their hearts remain on the dance floor and in the clubs.

AREPA 3000 is live instruments, start to finish. “Electronic music tries to simulate human sounds,” says the guitarist. “It’s really easy to buy a groove box or an 808 to make us sound like techno. So we try to get those sounds from our instruments, to go the other way. Make the human sounds sound electronic. When we do our club shows, I’ll spin before our set and we’ll add live instrumentation. We can play four, five hours like that.”