La Cumbiamba eNeye is an 11 piece outfit from NYC dedicated to preserving and exploring the many flavors of Afro-Colombian music. The group's debut, Marioneta, offers up a grab bag of traditional styles and formats from Colombia's coastal regions, with a special emphasis on the Pacific coast. And while there is plenty of variety to choose from here, from swinging village brass band styles like banda pelayera and chirmia to gentle mid tempo conjuntos de marimba, the group's specialty seems to be the flute and drum driven gaitas y tambores. The title track is a good example of this, sounding something like Andean flutes playing over some very funk Afro Cuban drumming. The flutes are all handmade by La Cumbiamba eNeye co-founder Martin Vejarano, who constructs them out of cactus wood he imports personally from Colombia, and it's the same obsession with details that makes Marioneta such a potent and authentic recording.