Meet the band that has knocked Sydney's Latin music scene into a new shape.

Paul Chenard, who formed Matanza three years ago, will never know how it feels to be out there with the audience, where the full impact of Matanza's performance is felt. Make no mistake, this is music to heal the dead, to drive the lethargic to the dancefloor, and derange the healthy with the irrepressible urge to turn somersaults in the air.

Since formation, Matanza's popularity has been building steadily. These days the band has a dedicated posse of followers, and here's why:

Chenard, with help from the band, has compiled an incendiary set-list that ensures the listener is never allowed to languish. Not just because every song has been chosen for its ability to set the room on fire, but because there is enough to engage and challenge the listener musically at all times. Combining Afro-Cuban jazz with Brazilian funk, Matanza performs music which is at once highly demanding, ear-bending, and irresistibly danceable.

But that's not all. Here's a band with enough charisma to beguile your grandmother, a band that puts out orders of magnitude more energy than the entire lighting rig that illuminates it. And there's more - and this is something that cannot be overlooked - half the line up is female. And, while not wanting to push the boundaries of propriety, it won't escape the spectator that they're dazzling, and, like their male counterparts, monsters on their chosen instrument.

'Matanza played with an energy that didn't let up all night! The line up, a who's who of Sydney's Latin Jazz fraternity, streamrolled through a sizzling repertoire of the hottest dance tunes to come out of the Afro-Cuban songbook, punctuated by sophisticated Latin breaks, chugging Brazilian Samba and downright sexy funk."

Diaspora World Beat, Dec 03