tropical psychedelia

Los Pirañas

Dance to this psychedelic connection between champeta, afrobeat, rock and cumbia.

Los Pirañas is an international instrumental supergroup that has been pushing the boundaries of Latin tropical music for some time now. This band represents thé psychedelic sound of contemporary Colombia and has been spearheading the revival of the Colombian music scene.

For almost 30 year Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo) have been putting their eccentric stamp on Latinamerican styles like vallenato, Peruvian chicha, and Colombian champeta, just to name a few.

Los Pirañas combine these styles with a rock attitude, noisy improvisations and absurd musical humor. Think of Captain Beefheart in an exotic mood. Completely crazy, but very danceable and enjoyable at the same time.

Their European tours catapulted them on some great festivals already, like Roskilde where they rocked a crowd of 10.000 people, Druga Godba in Ljubljana and Best Kept Secret in The Netherlands, just to name a few.

Their latest album, Historia Natural, was released in October 2019 on the Glitterbeat label, just before corona kicked in. In 2022 the band finally was able to do an European tour again and then took some time off to pursue other projects.

In March 2025 Los Pirañas released their latest album Una oportunidad mas de triunfar en la vida, on Glitterbeat again, followed by a successful European and American tour.

“Los Pirañas round off the evening with a set of joyful prog salsa tapping into their home country Colombia’s infectious rhythmic musics and criss-crossing it with a stunning musicianship that sees them jam and groove along to the possibilities of the music. It’s potent stuff and the whole room is dancing as the band stretch out into all a manner of unpredictable spaces and creates a perfect end of night party.” – John Robb, Louder Than War

“party music with a bite [..] Captain Beefheart in an exotic mood makes no sense anymore. Los Pirañas sounds more like a young Carlos Santana on acid”. – Oor Magazine/blog

“Los Pirañas are pushing Colombian music into new places (maybe even pushing too far for some tastes), giving it a raw, punk energy with a level of musicianship that knows no bounds.” – Songlines

“Colombian guitar-bass-drums trio continue their sci-fi, instrumental rock ‘n roll experiments on traditional cumbia. […] It only gets wilder.” – MOJO

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