Album Review - Version 2.0 by Toke D Keda (Bachata)

Artist: Toke D Keda (aka Toque De Keda)
Album: Version 2.0

As can be gleaned from the album title, this is the second full album of sorts for this band. Their first album was called Picando Alante or Te Extrano (same album essentially - different album title). I say that it is a second full album of sorts in part because three of the songs from their first album are included in Version 2.0 without any changes. First, the song titles include…

1. Fuiste Tu
2. Apretoncito
3. Tocate
4. Bajo La Luna
5. Dame Lo Que Quiero
6. Machachita
7. Recordare
8. Musica Ligera
9. Lamento Boliviano
10. Debo Pensar
11. Te Extrano
12. Debo Pensar (remix)

Fuiste Tu is their first Bachata "single," and it apparently reached #1 in Italian Bachata chart - whatever it means. It starts with a telephone ring - a possible homage to Obsesion (Aventura). While I feel that Fuiste Tu is certainly nice enough song to be played for dancing, there are better songs such as Apretoncito and Musica Ligera. My opinion is that Musica Ligera is their best new song.

Three songs that were included in their first album are Lamento Boliviano (their signature hit as far as dancers are concerned), Debo Pensar (I played this couple of times at Club Salsa), and Te Extrano. All three of these songs had been listed as one of one of 10 Bachata songs in my collection back in February by me. Te Extrano is the only one of the original 10 not to have been played by me (or anyone else for that matter) in Cambridge to date.

Another way of seeing it is that Version 2.0 lacks 3 other so-called playable Bachata songs in Picando Alante: Pecado, No Me Resigno, and Quiero Hacerto el Amor.

One more notable item about Version 2.0 is that it has 3 Reggaeton tracks: Tocate, Bajo La Luna and Dame Lo Que Quiero. I am even less of an expert in Reggaeton than in Bachata (this is after all only the fourth album containing Bachata for me), but I didn't think that these songs were any worse than many of the Reggaeton songs, which gets played all the time at Club Salsa.

With a caveat that I am speaking from perspective of someone who doesn't know the Bachata scene very much, I find both of Toque De Keda (or Toke D Keda) albums to be more listenable throughout compared to other Bachata CDs I have. Perhaps this is because their songs tend to have more energy (helped in part by incorporation of hip hop into their songs) compared to mostly sappy romantic material found in other Bachata artists. Another possible reason is that their music seems to result from a strong group effort rather than being dominated by the vocalist headliner(s). Dominic Marte has some good songs, but I couldn't sit through his entire album. Listening to admittedly rather limited sampling of some of other big Bachata artists I found on the web did not make me think that other Bachata artists are any better (even if they are bigger names).

With a caveat that I have no idea how one might go about buying this album (I purchased my autographed copy from Tony Lara, and he probably has more - For the band members in Miami reading this, you should work on better a distribution method), I would recommend it to any Bachata fan in Cambridge (especially if they don't have their first album already).

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Update - January, 2007

According to Jalen (one of the band members), the real version 2.0 will be in stores in 2007 with a total of 11 songs including 3 more bachatas no one's heard yet. The album I have is a limited edition (tour) preview CD.