Drums of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is not only about tango, you can hear all kinds of music in this wonderful city.

When I came home from the first day of the Latin American Bitcoin Conference, the streets were full of drummers and dancers. It was a festival of Candombe, a musical style that originates in Africa and is very popular in Uruguay, and more and more also in Argentina.

Every drummer plays a different pattern, together they create a hypnotic groove that makes you want to dance. There were many of those Candombe ensembles with fancy costumes. This one looks like they are from Germany (well, at least the colours).

Yesterday the remaining Bitcoiners who are still in town went to see a percussion orchestra called La Bomba de Tiempo ("Time Bomb"). They play every Monday in an open air concert venue near the Abasto shopping centre, and they are amazing.

They mix African and Latin American percussion, sometimes they can even sound like techno. It's one of the best percussion performances I have ever seen.

Some guest musicians had short performances with them, first a Balafon player from Ghana, then this three piece band made up of a percussionist and bass player from Africa and this incredible elderly lady from Germany, who played guitar like a young goddess.

There was a huge crowd which danced the whole time. Unlikely anything else in Buenos Aires, La Bomba starts punctually at 8pm and plays without a pause until 10pm.

I think it was not the last time I saw La Bomba!