Think about the meaning of ‘Banana Republic’. Know that ‘papaya’ is a Colombian fruit and, without wanting to sound obvious, that ‘republik’ is Spanish for ‘republic’. There you have Papaya Republik – a contemporary Colombian fusion band making unique sounding, quality music.

Papaya Republik is 7 Colombians from different regions of Colombia, with diverse musical backgrounds, based in Bogota.

Papaya Republik create and play music with flavours of groove, jazz, reggae, electronic, dub, rock, cumbia and other traditional Colombian styles. According to the lead vocalist Mauricio ‘Batori’ Pardo, they don’t use traditional musical styles but rather, “reconstruct and mutate them into new styles”.

Batori uses intelligent, tongue-in-cheek, and often sarcastic lyrics that tell stories about social and political issues in Colombia. He says that his use of sarcasm is like a survival mechanism for avoiding the feeling of constant despair about the ever present problems seen in Colombia.

Lyrics aside for non-Spanish speakers, Papaya Republik’s music is special. The use and blending of a variety of older and newer musical genres is done creatively and with skill, with an end result of music that is fantastic.

This is one of my favorite contemporary Colombian fusion bands and their one album so far, Vol 1, is an absolute pleasure to listen and dance to.

I am especially happy that the group has a real horn section (clarinet, trumpet, alto sax & tenor sax), because for me personally, horns in music generally always makes it better. I will pick up my trumpet again some day.

Check out these sample tunes from Vol 1 and let me know what you think…  

Breve La Vuelta

Cumbia Del Pescaito

Esquizoo

If you like the music, buy it through official channels and enjoy all the sounds you won’t hear in those mp3 versions. If for some reason you can´t find it, contact me and I will.

If you want to see Papaya Republik’s ideas about fusion music, check out the Fusion Music page.