Coke – Na Na
Coke – Got To Touch Your Face
Coke – Que Seria De Mi
After not posting much of anything for most of May, I wanted to make sure I got off on the good foot for June, so here’s some straight up Latin heat courtesy of Miami’s Los Coke. I’d seen this record several times before running into it at Groove Merchant a couple of years ago. Needle dropped on “Na Na” and I was sold…but didn’t have enough money to get the album at the time. Fast forward to earlier this year and during some internet searching I came across a dealer who was selling a copy on the cheap because of condition. Took a chance and rolled the dice on a record that was graded as a “G” and ended up getting an “O.G.” copy with much better sound than I even remember the Groove Merchant copy having. 
Los Coke, as they were sometimes called (at least before Coca-Cola forced a name change to “Opus”) were a clearly Santana influenced bilingual group that didn’t necessarily hit big outside of the Miami area, but the sounds on this LP (from the same label that brought you the legendary “Quit Jivin'” from Pearly Queen) have made many a DJ and crate digger happy, especially those drums from Ruben Perez. Clean breaks just jump out of the speakers on each of the chosen tracks and a few others on the LP, I only wish the group had been mic’ed a bit better so they were a bit warmer, but when they hit this hard over so many tracks, really who can complain? “Na Na” remains my favorite and something that I’m just DYING to put on at a place like Funky Sole to see the dancers dance. Everytime Paul Fernandez sings “Life Could Be Much Better, If We Had Our Shit Together,” I say “Amen, ain’t that the truth!” The way things frequently drop out, often with just the voice and drums, on the song slays me each and every time.
What I particularly like about this copy is that somebody took the time to color in all the parts of the LP cover that weren’t fully colored originally, which gives it an even more striking look than the version sold in stores. You can find represses of this LP on the cheap, not sure if the sound quality is much better, but I’m sure the price will be, though I’m sure you know that originals are always tastier.
Cheers,
Michael