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ELPALMAS 039LP
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This compilation edition recovers the memory of a very important moment for Venezuelan pop music. The appearance of PP'S (the acronym for Pedro Pérez Show, an original name that highlighted the leadership of the creator of an unexpected new wave scene in Venezuela) produced an explosion whose echo later resonated with the birth of a handful of bands that also renewed the country's musical panorama, in tune with what sounded strong in the Anglo market in those effervescent '80s (punk, post-punk, ska, even the funk that had expanded in the previous decade): Sentimiento Muerto, La Seguridad Nacional, Desorden Público, Caramelos de Cianuro, and Los Amigos Invisibles. PP'S recorded three albums in the '80s: PP'S (1981), En el aire (1982) and Tercera Guerra Mundial (1984), all with a clear pattern: putting the body in motion. It is music connected to its time that invites you to dance and listen to today, it builds a bridge to the past while opening a path to the future because PP'S is still in action. This compilation contains six songs from the first album, two from the second and three from the third, and is an exclusive edition of El Palmas Music. It reaffirms the vocation of Maurice Aymard's label to preserve the heritage of Venezuelan popular culture and at the same time captures all the facets of a musical project that is a stainless symbol of the country's new wave, but also exceeds that label with music in which flows of progressive, space rock and acid jazz filtered through. A colorful, diverse new wave, far from any type of corset. At just over 20 years old, Pedro Pérez lived in a city with a powerful cultural imprint like San Francisco. In the air was the fresh, uplifting sound of bands like Talking Heads, Devo, and The B-52's. Also, reggae and dancehall from a large group of Jamaican artists. Pérez also shared a date with Black Uhuru and with UB40, a British reflection (white and more pop) of Rastafarian music.
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ELPALMAS 038LP
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The recovery of this Sexteto Fantasía album is another event that El Palmas Music is proud to promote. The leader of that Venezuelan group that released this album in 1968 is Virgilio Armas, a pianist with a truly enviable record of service. To confirm it, just skim the list of artists he once worked with: Tito Puente, Paulinho da Costa, Stan Getz, Nancy Wilson, Sergio Mendes, Elis Regina, Leslie Root, and more. Estamos en Algo captivates and surprises with its heterogeneity: there is guaracha, pachanga, mambo, boogaloo (attention to the soulero groove and boogie-woogie of "Panchita"), cha cha cha, and bolero. As was well explained on the back cover of the first edition of this magnificent album, it is "a dynamic and versatile group made up of young musicians, wishing to contribute a new style in order to establish themselves in the competitive field of sextets." The spirit is salsa, but here there are nuances of Latin jazz and bossa nova that color the landscape. The Sexteto Fantasia was connected to the tradition of Latin American popular music and its time, focused especially on expanding the limits of its own work, as befits any modern artist. The staff of this album was headed by pianist and musical director Virgilio Armas. It was completed by Domingo Moret (flute and guitar), Rodolfo Buenaño (bass), Guillermo Taribe (drums), Hugo Liendo (tumbadoras), and Gabriel Ruiz on vocals.
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ELPALMAS 037LP
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The rescue of the only album by the Orquesta La Solvencia symbolizes very well the full meaning of the mission of the El Palmas label, stubborn in keeping the history of salsa alive in Venezuela, recovering the intrepid and genuine music with which the pillars of the salsa genre were built. At the time this album appeared, originally released by the Corpodisco label in 1980, "guaguancó, guaracha, son and merengue were played, but Latin rhythms were not yet definitively labeled as salsa" says Felipe Díaz, singer of La Solvencia. There were many orchestras of this type in Venezuela. Every season they used to visit dozens and dozens of towns to celebrate the festivities of different patron saints, popular celebrations in which people gave themselves up to dancing in an atmosphere of collective trance. The combination of the natural and contagious groove of La Solvencia's songs with lyrics that paint with strokes as simple as they are accurate the daily life of ordinary people, their joys and disappointments, their urgencies and troubles, transformed the group into one of the favorites of the Venezuelan salsa public.
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ELPALMAS 036LP
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In the '80s, Dimas "Sam Dimas" Pedroza was encouraged with two atypical projects. One in partnership with the great Larry Francia, another artist released by El Palmas Music, and titled La Salsa Es Con Dimas y Larry. And the other with an orchestra of great artists of the time that El Palmas now relaunches: Sam Dimas and La Diferente's El Tumbao?, with songs by prestigious authors such as Joseíto Fernández and José González Giralt and arrangements by the renowned trombonist Rafael Silva. It is worth mentioning the great musicians that Dimas Pedroza summoned for this album: Rafael Araujo, Lewis Vargas, and Gustavo Aranguren (trumpets), Carlos Espinoza and Rafael Silva (trombones), José Ávila (piano), Rafael Prado (bass), Pedro Viloria (timbales, güiro), Williams (congas), Nene Pacheco (bongo, drum), Leo Pacheco, Rafael Silva and Rafael Prado (choirs). There were also some special guests: Alfredo Pollo Gil and Manuel Icazas (trumpets), Oscar Mendoza (trombone), Joe Santamaría and Chucho Chuchochi (timbal), and Edwin Infante (maracas). Sam Dimas y La Diferente's El Tumbao... is an album that Dimas never presented live. One of those hidden gems in the history of salsa that El Palmas is dedicated to rescuing to continue reconstructing the memory of Venezuelan popular music, one of its main objectives.
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ELPALMAS 034LP
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El Palmas Music rescues a hidden gem of Venezuelan salsa. With the vinyl reissue of En La Conquista del Mundo Latino (1979), by the Salsa Suprema Orchestra, it pays a fair tribute to Larry Francia. "Larry Francia's work deserves nothing less than transcendence," says Miguel Álvarez, the Venezuelan musical collector and archaeologist who one day came across with this salsa legend from his country without planning it and knew it was fair and necessary to spread this magnificent work. Born in Barlovento, an Afro area of Venezuela where the drum rules, Larry Francia grew up in San Agustín del Sur, a Caracas neighborhood that is salsa territory par excellence. When he was barely 12 years old, Víctor Piñero, one of the most popular orchestra singers in Venezuela in the '60s, summoned him to record choirs. An early initiation that marked Larry forever and at the same time revealed his indisputable talent. When that orchestra stopped working (there were no producers who supported their tours, their records were pirated in Spain in the '80s), Larry suffered an emotional breakdown and even gave up devoting himself to music for a few years. He was someone who undoubtedly lived for and through music. Larry Francia left this world in 2023, but he left a fabulous album like En La Conquista del Mundo Latino, recovered from the chest of memories by Álvarez and the Suicide Diggerz collective, specialists in rescuing hidden gems. The El Palmas Music label -- created by musician, DJ, designer and cultural agitator Maurice Aymard, whose base of operations is in Barcelona -- has been committed since 2020 to making known the best and least visible of the rich heritage of the popular music from Venezuela. Now he is pleased to present the reissue of this fundamental album as a posthumous tribute to the great Larry Francia.
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ELPALMAS 035LP
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"This LP with Sexteto Caracas will be, from now on, the favorite of all parties with a happy atmosphere, because through its interpretations it has that rhythm and party flavor that we all want to hear and dance to" reads the back cover of the original edition of the great album that the El Palmas Music label has pleasure of reissuing on vinyl, respecting every detail of its original art. Sexteto Caracas was launched in 1969 by a small Venezuelan label (Discos Diana), and it appeared when salsa was already a consolidated popular phenomenon in the country. The era of the rage of the tasty crossover of genres with guaguancó and boogalú and even soul, of the "superdiscotecas with cinematic sound and psycho-delirious dance floor," as was announced in the promotion of a show at El Palacio del Baile when Caracas was experiencing an impressive cultural explosion. In this context, the only album by Sexteto Caracas was released, a group of young but seasoned musicians through dozens and dozens of shows, with a luxury musical director (Abiezer M. D'Aubeterre, better known as Ajoporro, also in charge of the piano and guitar) and the voice of Alfredo Antonio, who had previously ventured into pop music as the singer of the group Chicles. Sexteto Caracas was born in the mid-'60s as the initiative of the timbalero Jesús "Chui" Osuna, who conditioned his own house for the group's rehearsals, and it established itself as it added concerts in that Caracas of great musical revelry until it reached its unique album, a collector's item that El Palmas Music proudly recovers, faithful to its objective of cultural archeology and revaluation of artists who deserve a privileged place in history.
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ELPALMAS 033LP
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Jesús Gómez y su Grupo has been a vinyl jewel impossible to find for decades, a musical treasure ahead of its time with a prodigious voice. Jesús Gómez had not even reached the age of majority when he embarked on the adventure of recording and producing his own album, bringing together songs from the main Afro-Latin rhythms of the moment to which he contributed all his fantastic explosion of creativity. Different rhythms, styles, and learnings hardened Jesús so that at only 17-years-old he could deliver such a fantastic work, a clairvoyant sound of pure "salsa" even before it became fashionable to call this type of music that way. Jesús Gómez is not one to fall short, neither in style nor in rhythm, a true artist from the beginning he also includes surf and bossanova pieces, taking his work to other territories without fear. Jesús Gómez y su Grupo was perhaps the definitive step that opened all the doors of a brilliant career for this young man, he would go on to collaborate almost from that moment with countless nationally and internationally renowned orchestras and artists, including Sonora Caracas itself, already historic and still standing at the moment. If this album reaches your hands, you will have a treasure in it, since it is among the most sought-after in the history of Caribbean music.
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ELPALMAS 032LP
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Enigmatic group known for their song "Cumbia Del Desierto" on a 7" they share with El Dragón Criollo at El Palmas Music. This song was played with fury by music lovers and collectors around the world. Well, beautiful people La Jungla is back with the melody in this mini album titled De Borondo! A cut of four songs where criticism, humor, experiences, and good vibes are present throughout all the songs.
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ELPALMAS 031LP
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El Palmas Music release a new compilation of songs by the famous Venezuelan singer and percussionist Tabaco. Tabaco Quintana is, without a doubt, one of the great masters of Venezuelan salsa. Born in Caracas in 1943, he was tall and very skinny, which earned him the nickname, Tabaco. A shoeshine boy and street hawker, at the age of 18 he fell in love with the Caracas nightlife and spent his days listening to the rehearsals of a musical group that he ended up joining, thanks to the intervention of his friend Elio Pacheco. That group was called Sexteto Juventud. Tabaco passed through almost every musical position within the band until he became a singer. It was the resemblance of his voice to Ismael Rivera and his skills as an interpreter that earned him a permanent position in the band. After leaving the group in 1973, he created his own sextet, Tabaco y Su Sexteto, and later formed Tabaco y sus Metales, two groups that achieved international recognition, and became staples of the Venezuelan music scene 'til the mid-80s. Throughout, and despite his fame, Tabaco was always clear that music had a social role to play, and would often sing in Venezuelan prisons. Sadly, he died young, on May 30, 1995, due to a lung condition. The public overflowed the streets to accompany him to his last dance. This compilation of Tabaco's songs, simply titled Tabaco and compiled by El Dragón Criollo and El Palmas, is an attempt to shine a light on this musical icon, and to show his versatility, vocal ability and unparalleled knowledge of musical rhythms. Primarily known for his voice - which isn't surprising considering his vocal nuances and the different registers he is able to reach -- it can be said that he was also no slouch when it came to mixing up the rhythms. On this compilation there is a strong influence of African music ("San Juan Guarincongo", "Imolle") and jazz -- just listen to the unforgettable beginning of "Arrollando". Percussion, piano and wind instruments are high in the mix, but it's the masterful voice of Tabaco that adapts effortlessly to the requirements of the melody and the lyrics, riding each groove masterfully. The lyrics also show the great social sensitivity of the Venezuelan maestro: "Una Sola Bandera" and "Cuando Llora el Indio" are two great examples of salsa's power in denouncing social injustice, and Tabaco's commitment to that ethos. Tabaco is unmissable, a heady journey into the essence of salsa and the rhythms of the Caribbean.
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ELPALMAS 024LP
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El Palmas Music reissue a rare 1970s Venezuela salsa record that spotlights the work of enigmatic Caracas guitar maestro, Andrés Moros. Given his singular vision on the 1976 salsa masterpiece, Andres y Sus Estrellas, the absence of information on Venezuelan musician Andres Moros, also known as "Morito", feels almost criminal. What we do know is that Morito first began his musical journey as a live performer in the bars and nightclubs of Caracas in the 1960s-70s, at the full height of the Venezuelan salsa boom, and was a core figure on the scene. Alongside a small band, Morito would frequently perform in the bustling live music circuits of Caracas and La Guiara, where he first met the notable singer, Nano Grant. Andres y Sus Estrellas was the result of a long-held dream of Morito's to partner with Grant to record an album. This album, Morito's debut project, is now getting reissued by El Palmas Music. With big band compositions spiced with the flavor of Caribbean rhythm, the album is a seminal example of Venezuelan music at the height of its salsa movement. Grant's effortlessly smooth flowing vocals chronicle tales of love, passion and party, masterfully guided under Morito's cohesive musical direction. Here, the arrangement flows with succinct percussion, dramatic pauses, and satisfying brass bursts all timed to perfection and employed with astonishing versatility from track to track. "Canuto" is a soft, sensual calling to end the tears, "no quiero que llores más", soulfully implores Grant. "No Quiero Bailar Pegao" is an upbeat merengue-infused track that humorously chronicles tales of sweaty, intimate dancefloors. On the bolero-ballad "Condición", a female vocalist known today only as Yara passionately navigates heartbreak and reconciliation, the anguish of her vocal underscored by sweeping brass. Meanwhile, "La Mazucamba" is a skittish ode to the act of dancing, a gleeful celebration to what the record as a whole evokes: dancing with feeling; come joy or sorrow; the rhythm moves you. Andres y Sus Estrellas is a cult classic that encapsulates the very best of Venezuelan's golden salsa-era; a must-have for any collector looking to add an overlooked gem of the genre to their music library.
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ELPALMAS 023LP
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El Palmas Music reissue an incredibly hard-to-find album by Venezuelan salsa bandleader and polymath. Few artists worked as hard at their craft as Ramón Urbina. At the age of 15, and in thrall to the Latin jazz and tropical music he was hearing on the radio, he learnt to play tres guitar. Then he learned bass. Then percussion, tumbadora, timpani drums, trumpet, trombone, piano, whatever instrument he could get his hands on. A true enthusiast and student of all the tropical music that was percolating through Venezuela and the rest of Latin America at the time, he wanted to understand the art of composition and arranging, and around 1972 he decided to put it to the test, forming his first group, Ramón y su Banda Latina. Taking inspiration from salsa ensembles like Sexteto Juventud, as well as Pastor López, a Venezuelan singer and bandleader who was having huge successes in Colombia for his mix of cumbias, guarachas and boleros, Ramón's group toured throughout Venezuela during the 1970s. Then one day, he went to see La Dimensión Latina in his home town of Charallave, and he saw the future. The age of salsa with its multi-trombone sound was here, and he wanted to take part, recruiting new members to form Moncho y su Banda. After road testing their material, the new group was ready to record an album in 1981, but finding a record label was not easy. Ramón loved music but he was a homebody too and spent most of his time in Charallave, at a distance from the thriving music scene in Caracas. This, combined with the fact that he'd yet to record an album and create any kind of international reputation meant that he initially struggled to find a label. Moncho y su Banda stepped into a recording studio and didn't rest until they'd got what they wanted. Once record label executives finally heard the album, titled Qué Bellas Son (How Beautiful They Are), they couldn't resist its energy and a release date was set. It's an album that captures the sound of a working band at ease, playing the kind of set that they would be knocking out at clubs around Venezuela at the time, full of life and passion. Whereas a formulaic salsa sound was forming in the early '80s, Moncho y su Banda bucked the trend, playing a mix of raw, unbridled salsa dura, as well as cumbias, merengues, boleros, and chucu-chucus, all with a heady dose of Caribbean spirit that sets the group apart from the more urbane salsa ensembles of the day. Qué Bellas Son is the only album that Ramón Urbina ever recorded, though he has kept performing to this day, where you can still find him in Charallave.
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ELPALMAS 022LP
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Compiled by El Dragón Criollo and El Palmas Music. As the 1950s drew to a close a group of students at Caracas's Universidad Central de Venezuela caught the tropical music bug and decided to form an orchestra. With the majority of the students coming from the engineering faculty, they were duly christened Conjunto Ingeniería (The Engineering Group) and from the offset, they were ahead of the game. Tropical music, or música bailable (danceable music), was slowly making its way to Venezuela, but Conjunto Ingeniería had a secret weapon as one of their fellow students was studying in New York and every July he'd return with the latest Latin big band sounds: Tito Puente, Machito, they heard it first. Nine young male musicians playing the hippest sounds around, they were the obvious band to play high-society quinceañeras (15th birthday celebrations to mark a "girl's journey into womanhood"), as well as playing countless times at the university, on TV, at weddings, and at carnival, where on one occasion they accompanied Celia Cruz. "We were the first group to play at the launch party for 'salsa', a term that was established by the [Venezuelan] announcer Phidias Danilo Escalona in Barquisimeto we were considered the best orchestra", says Marquez. On record, their eclecticism and musical chops belied their age. In 1961, they released their self-titled debut album, which tackled mambo, guaracha, cha-cha-cha, and charanga, which included their cover of The Diamond's "Little Darlin'", arguably the first rock n' roll song recorded in Venezuela. They followed it up with Aqui Esta El Conjunto Ingenieria, their second album in 1962, in which they showed once more that rock could easily sit next to Latin. Their last album, Boogaloo Con Ingenieria, arrived in 1967, and made clear the influence of New York in their sound. Conjunto Ingeniería came to an end at the beginning of the '70s. Though their recording output was nowhere near as prolific as their contemporaries Billo's Caracas Boys or Los Melódicos, if you were turning on the TV, going to carnival or, especially, attending a quinceañera, in Caracas in the 1960s, then you would no doubt of come across Conjunto Ingeniería and their rock n' roll-embellished New York-meets-Venezuela big band sound. On this compilation, simply titled Conjunto Ingeniería, El Palmas Music have cherrypicked a glorious selection of tracks from across the group's career, capturing all the creativity and youthful excitement that made them one of the first titans of Venezuela's tropical music history.
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ELPALMAS 021LP
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Grupo Casabe can lay claim to being Ray Pérez's last great group. Fresh from the successes of Los Dementes and Los Kenya, Pérez was at the forefront of salsa in the mid-70s, and still experimenting with música bailable and all the danceable horn-blazing styles that were beginning to be known collectively as salsa. The finest tracks of this short-lived combo, active from 1974 until 1975, are now being celebrated by El Palmas Music on a new compilation simply titled Ray Pérez y El Grupo Casabe. Pérez was bandleader for an astonishing number of groups, which was partly due to his in-demand status, with each move to a new label meaning he needed a new band name. Such was the case with Ray Pérez y El Grupo Casabe, formed when CBS came calling. Their line-up built on his previous groups, with both a drum kit and percussion for additional power, with Pérez himself belting out those trusty piano montuños, however there was one significant change, with Pérez using saxophones for the first time, alongside his usual brass section of trumpets and trombones. With him for the ride were vocalists including Rodrigo Perdomo (brother of "El Negrito Calavén", from Pérez's earlier group, Los Calvos) and Rafael Morillo. The compilation begins with "María Antonia", the first 7" Grupo Casabe released in 1974. 1974 and 1975 were important years in the trajectory of salsa. It was this period when salsa became a collective name for urban orchestras playing Latin music styles like son, guaganco, mambo, cha-cha-cha and rumba. Though undoubtedly salsa -- Ray was a "rey de salseros" after all -- there is so much nuance in the music. "Campesino Nuestro" is a slow-building rural son, taking the Cuban countryside to the dancefloor; "Santa" and "Oye Nena" are twisting guaguancos, the former possessing one of Perdomo's finest vocal performances, and the latter the finest showcase for the band, with percussion, brass, and piano on fire. "La Reina", a danzón, show that the band can do the slow numbers too, and then there's "Sábado En La Tarde", Perez's take on surf with a melody seemingly taken from the finest Steve McQueen crime caper. There are few that come close to Ray Pérez for musical inventiveness and a sheer ability to keep dancefloors moving. Includes 7".
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ELPALMAS 019LP
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2024 restock; last copies, reduced price. Few have done as much for salsa in Venezuela as band-leader, composer and pianist Ray Pérez. He burst on to the scene in the mid-60s with his group Los Dementes, creating the blueprint for guaguanco, Pachanga, and boogaloo in Venezuela. When the name salsa began to be used as something of a catch-all-term he was still at the forefront, recording two hugely-popular salsa albums with Los Dementes in 1967. Remarkably, that very same year, he also recorded two albums with a brand-new group, Los Calvos, that showed how as well as being the genre's most visible band-leader, he was also pushing the nascent genre to its limits. Estos Son Los Calvos is the first of the two albums he made with Los Calvos. On it, he recruited a drummer (unprecedented at the time for a salsa ensemble, which always used percussionists), switched from the trombones of Los Dementes to the much harder, direct sound of trumpets, and he recruited Carlos Yanez, best known as El Negrito Calavén, as singer. Whereas Los Dementes had been aligned with the slightly pop sound of tropical orchestras, Los Calvos took an almost-jazz approach, allowing room for the musicians and vocalists to improvise, and they also took inspiration from the sounds of surf rock swirling around Caracas. Opening track "El Kenya" is the clearest example of that surf rock influence. They were intent on creating their own dance craze, and the song had all the credentials: rollicking montuno piano from Pérez, ingenious scatting and vocal improvs from Calavén, and a middle section where the drums and trumpets battle it out hard. It's followed by "Mi Salsa Llegó", which Pérez had already recorded with Los Dementes; here, it's a tougher beast, the sparser hits of the drums and trumpets giving a harder sound evocative of the times. Los Calvos was a group made up of some of Venezuela's finest musicians. The legendary Frank "El Pavo" Hernandez was on drum kit, with revered names like Alfredo Padilla, Carlos "Nene" Quintero, Pedro García, Miguel Silva, Enrique Vazquez, Rafael Araujo, and Luis Lewis, also involved in the group. Their versatility allowed Los Calvos to go from the slower, haunting groove of "Negrito Calavan", on to "Bailemos Kenya", another attempt by the group to create their own version of "The Twist". Los Calvos never played live, but that was always the intention. But the spirit of Los Calvos remained when Pérez then formed Los Kenya. Los Calvos would never have the same successes as Pérez's other groups, though, Pérez has revealed that the two albums he made as Los Calvos are some of the most fun he ever had recording.
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ELPALMAS 018LP
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El Palmas Music are back with a third instalment of rare Venezuelan sounds from the '60s and '70s, a wild trip through salsa, boogaloo, garage rock, jazz, and delinquent pop. This fertile musical period has always been the focus of the Color de Trópico series, and continues to be the case on this third instalment, though it should also be noted that the tracks are getting rarer and rarer, indicative of the curatorship of DJ El Palmas and El Drágon Criollo. Color de Trópico Vol. 3 starts with Un, Dos, Tres Y ... Fuera's "Aquella Noche", a song that's fully indicative of Venezuela's coastline with the much-loved group giving a llanero rhythm a fully Afro-Caribbean makeover with pulsating bass and an electric keyboard. It possesses some of that same mid-70s vitality and need to experiment as Grupo Vaquedanus, the band of sax maestro Santiago Baquedano, and their cover of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five", here fashioned as "Toma Cinco" (recorded as Grupo Baquedanu's). Girl group Los Pájaros hit hard with a boogaloo with simple instructions. Pop stars Geminis 5 were at it too with a fuzzy ballad "Tus 16 Años", and Junior Squad injected a bit of San Francisco hippy charm into affairs with their loose adaptation of The Turtles' "She'd Rather Be With Me", retitled as "Siempre Para Ti" and sounding as rough, ready and full of youthful vim as anything made north of Mexico. On the farthest end of the pop spectrum is The Pets with their cult hit "El Entierro de Un Hombre Rico que Murió de Hambre" ("The Burial of a Rich Man Who Died of Starvation"), a true countercultural anthem that even dips into "The Funeral March" for a minute. The salsa ensembles and their big band predecessors are always an important element of any Color de Trópico compilation. On Vol. 3, you find one of the earliest salsa groups in Venezuela, Los Megatones De Lucho, who recorded a pachanga, "Yo Se Que Tu", long before salsa was even a thing. Influenced by Venezuela's very own Los Dementes and Joe Cuba's sextet, Príncipe Y Su Sexteto were one of Venezuela's most prominent salsa ensembles. On their 1969 track "San De Manique" you get a different vibe altogether, it's a creeping son with just vocals, bass, and congas for its opening minute, before really kicking into action with a twisted guitar line and wild percussion, while always retaining a raw, Afro-Latin feel. One of Venezuela's most beloved salseros, Johnny Sede, pipes up with a classic salsa, "Guararé", showing how the style had developed in just a few short years. Also features Los Terrícolas.
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ELPALMAS 017LP
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If you define folklore as the passing on of traditions from a particular group of people, then there can be no denying that Acid Coco, whether consciously or not, are playing an important role in disseminating the folk culture of Colombia's Caribbean coast. Throughout their music there are links to tradition: the gaita flute typical of rural cumbia, the effervescent guitar licks that are such a big part of the coast's Afro-diasporic sounds, the teeth-rattling bass indicative of communities brought up on picó sound systems since the '70s, the unmistakable sound of the marimba wooden xylophone (each note like a rain drop on the jungle canopy), and then there are the lyrics. Tradition should not stand still, and in Andrea's words you find the oral traditions of the last 30 years: on "Hoy Como Siempre" she sings of the need for women to stick up for themselves, to not fall in love too easily; on "Cara Dura" the sentiment is even stronger, its lyrics picking out a male predator on the dancefloor who will not be tolerated; and then there's "Mundo de Mentira" where vulnerability peaks through, the story of a woman whose life has become a "world of lies" since their lover has left. They are stories that could have spilled out of Cali's salsatecas, Cartagena's picós or any club the world over, yet through Paulo's canny production there is no doubt where you are. Dembow, cumbia, reggaeton, even on the spiky Caribbean folk of final track "Por Las Venas" or chiptune melody of "Aquí y Allá", there is nowhere we can be other than on Colombia's Caribbean coast.
"We are inspired by our own experiences, as well as those of others. The last year was the beginning of a new era for all of us and it has left us with much to analyze and the need to rethink our priorities. There's been so many changes on this planet: the confinement, the constant looking back at the past, the struggle of many against endless injustices, love, all this leads to the fact that our new songs have very current themes but that also transcend time. They continue the characteristic sound of Acid Coco, with the undeniable influence of the Caribbean." --Acid Coco
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ELPALMAS 020LP
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2024 restock; last copies, reduced price. El Palmas Music present a reissue of the second album from Venezuela's Los Calvos, ... y Que Calvos!, originally released in 1968. This second and lamentably final album found the group creating a signature sound with the musicians given free rein and a stronger push to the dance floor, this is música bailable personified. The drum kit was instrumental to their image and sound; it was an instrumental unusual in salsa at the time. So much so that their own drummer Frank "Pavo" Hernandez had said disparagingly that "salsa with a drum kit is like pasta with avocado". Kudos then to "Pavo", along with fellow drummer Alfredo Padilla, who seamlessly integrated the instrument into the line-up, allowing its heavy hits to add energy and power to the group's sound. Vocal duties throughout are split evenly, five tracks a piece in fact, between Carlos "Carlín" Asicio Rodríguez and Carlos "Calaven" Yanes. It is Calaven who surprises the most, his mischievous delivery and ability to improvise and scat placing him in the higher echelons of vocalists, and not just within salsa. "José", which is also a showcase for bandleader Ray Perez to free wheel on the piano, is a perfect example of Calaven's ability to enliven any descarga (jam) with unexpected vocal turns; but then, even on the album's original single "El Moño De Maria" he shows that with a few variations on the chorus, he can elevate any song. His partner in vocals, Carlín, is no slouch either, leading the driving "Tiene La Razón" with ease and showing that he can get down and dirty on the percussion-heavy "El Tumbeleco". Perez was one of Venezuela's finest bandleaders, also helming the legendary Los Dementes, Los Kenya, and others, and he brings a number of famous friends and allies to the party. Professional lucha fighter turned composer Gustavo "El Chiclayano" Seclén contributes the playful "El Marciano y Yo" ("The Martian and Me"), which allows Calaven plenty of opportunity to improvise, his imitations of intergalactic beings a wonderful thing, with what sounds like the rim of a wine glass being used to create Mars-esque special effects. You can also hear Perucho Torcatt, a regular collaborator of Ray Perez's in Los Dementes, adding his voice throughout the album. ... y Que Calvos! is not for the idle, it's an album which does not allow you to sit down. Powerful, inventive, and abundant of rhythm. A lost salsa classic.
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ELPALMAS 016LP
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On his debut album as El Drágon Crillo, Colombian producer, musician and singer Paulo Olarte Toro finds a meeting place between bouncing Caribbean cadences and dancefloor-ready beats that threaten to propel your body into motion. Pase Lo Que Pase (translating as Whatever Happens, Happens) is one of those albums that threatens to take you some place new, in this case to the Colombian Caribbean sometime around the '80s or '90s, when analog synths, punchy drum machines and Afro-Caribbean guitar melodies ruled the roost. The fact it was this era when Olarte Toro was growing up in Colombia should not go unnoticed. Now based in Geneva, Switzerland, it's like he's dialing back the years to a more innocent musical time, re-imagining what it was like for those early pioneers of reggaeton (long before it became so commercial) and for the musicians on Colombia's Caribbean coast augmenting their tropical vinyl sets with rough-and-ready samples and lo-fi drum sounds. Within this sonic milieu, there is joy at every corner, from the moment opening track "La Número Uno" sets off on its stripped-back champeta rhythm. In its swirling guitar lines, programmed beat (slowed down to cumbia pace) and unrushed vocals it's impossible not to lose track of time. Further twisted guitar lines are to be found on following track "La Brisa", which was influenced by US West Coast '90s rock a la Jane's Addiction, while "Líbrame de Todo Mal" finds an unlikely union between reggae, a disarmingly-anthemic '80s synth line and stinging guitar. It's a fiesta at which you're never far from cumbia, as on the mesmerizing "Cumbia Fantasia", but also throughout the album, where cumbia's rhythm, instrumentation and traditions are continually hinted at. If musically there is much playfulness and a hint of nostalgia, albeit thrust up-to-date thanks to Olarte Toro's production, lyrically there is a heavy heart at play. "Ojos de Bosque", a duet which likewise has a sprinkle of Brazilian bombast and is unafraid to get close to "pop" terrain, was written when the first pandemic hit. With his arsenal of guitar, bass, analog synths (chiefly Roland Juno-106 and JX-3P), samplers and percussion, not to mention his guiding voice, Olarte Toro has created an album that could only have been made by him, by a Colombian who grew up with Latin rock, reggaeton, cumbia, champeta, etc., and who moved to Europe to become a noted name in underground dance music circles.
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ELPALMAS 014LP
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Those two über-hip expatriate Colombian "salsapunks" are back. Contento's first album, Lo Bueno Está Aquí (ELPALMAS 008LP, 2020), was an artistic and critical success: chosen, for example, by the UK's discerning national newspaper, The Guardian, as their global album of the month in November last year. Their follow-up, En Lancha Pal Futuro, builds seamlessly on its predecessor. Yet it could not have been recorded in more different, and difficult, circumstances. The duo's debut was laid down between 2016 and 2019, a period when the two European-based Colombians, who met at an Eddie Palmieri concert in Berlin, were able to take some serious time off from their diverse individual projects to explore a new vision for salsa. Paulo, a member of Acid Coco, Jaguar and El Dragón Criollo; and Sano, a DJ and producer known for his minimalist Latin house releases for the Cómeme label, crystallized on their debut what Paulo describes as "a new salsa sound that may also make [listeners] want to discover some of the older sounds, too." That sound is a kind of "retro-smart" combination of Nuyorican boogaloo from the '60s and cumbia from the golden age of Discos Fuentes. Contento's contemporary electronic twist suggests, if you like, a kind of post-modern variation on Dave "Baby" Cortez's "Happy Hook With an Organ".
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ELPALMAS 013LP
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Compiled by El Palmas Music and El Dragón Criollo. The album begins with the theme that every afternoon, starting at 6 o'clock, all the youth of Caracas waited anxiously: "Introduction Theme" by Los Supersónicos was the wake-up call to introduce the charge of surfing that that later it would explode in El Club Musical. And from the same group, another of their greatest hits is included, such as "Rosas Rojas para una Dama Triste". The Dangers were in charge of entertaining many youth parties in Venezuelan society. Their great success was "Congratulations", an obscure Ricky Nelson song, of which they made an excellent cover. And to demonstrate the great influence of the British group The Shadows -- present in all the youth bands of the time -- here they shine with their recreation of the song "González". The Blonders were by far the possessors of the purest and most crystalline sound among the surf groups in Venezuela. A bold and highly imaginative arrangement of the classic "Lamento Borincano" is enough to justify its inclusion in this compilation. And although The Impala came to have the most aggressive and rock-and-roll sound, here they show another facet of their music with the songs "Triste" and "Desafinado".
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ELPALMAS 015LP
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Venezuelan aggressive guaguanco originally released in 1967 and reissued for the very first time. Frank y Sus Inquietos is a little-commented Venezuelan treasure in our time, an amazing, almost unknown jewel of Venezuelan hard salsa, treasured with zeal by music lovers of all times. This group is evidence of the musical communion of the young Caracas of the late '60s with the sounds of the Caribbean in their nascent marriage with urban aggressiveness. As a result of these meetings of "friends who played instruments" such as congas, bongos, piano, timbales and their fiery discharges on the top floor of Block 3 of La Silsa, a building located in this humble and highly populated Caracas popular area, the repertoire of songs by the homonym Frank y Sus Inquietos (1969), with an exquisite imagination and brimming with vitality, authentic vocals and choirs, overwhelming percussion, strong bass and fierce piano conducted by Frank González.
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ELPALMAS 012LP
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Jaguar mine the sounds of the Colombian Caribbean and global dance sub cultures on a debut album that veers between psychedelic salsa, taut cumbia-disco and zouk party jams. Rave culture never hit Colombia in the '90s -- an internal civil war and a music industry fixated on blandness and payola made sure of that -- but if it had then Jaguar would have been one of its leading lights. On their debut album this Colombian duo excavate the sound of their country's dancefloors, uniting the classy, brassy sounds of cumbia, porro and salsa with the earthier DIY vibrations coming from Afro-Colombian street parties on the coast, melodies and guitar lines learnt from imported African vinyl filtered through drum machines and hand-painted picó sound systems with the bass so high it threatens to knock you over. The twosome mark out their stall on album opener "Bailalo Tu También" (You Dance It, Too), urging all to come and dance on a tune that references champeta (the #1 sound of Afro-Colombian block parties), zouk and calypso, as well as doffing a cap to disco and Brit funk. The cumbia card comes out on "Contra La Corriente" (Against The Tide) with its subtle influences of global bass and minimal post-disco. "Ten Presente" (Keep In Mind) represents another side step, a salsa orchestra stripped down to just vocals, percussion, killer horn section and raspy charango. "Guadalupe" offers a message of hope that one day the inequality, poverty and neglect that is everyday life for many people in Colombia will be diminished by getting behind the same cause. Driven by an '80s-inspired zouk beat, they dream of there one day being a united people with the strength to fight back against the authorities. This dichotomy of emotions crops up again on "Siguele El Paso" (Keep Up), a pure Caribbean groove that is impossibly infectious with lyrics that speak of keeping those hips moving but can't help but mention reality, the protagonist of the song dodging bullets and nefarious forces while still keeping their rhythm on the dance floor. It's a perfect encapsulation of Jaguar's modus operandi, this is music to make you dance, but it remains grounded, in Colombian and Caribbean musical idioms as well as the hard times that many Colombians are living through.
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ELPALMAS 010LP
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El Palmas Music and El Dragón Criollo once again leave their skin immersing themselves in the musical archives of the "Venezuelan Saudi". In addition to the search for that Holy Grail of "one's own identity" in the midst of the international explosion of musical trends, the need arises to express the consequences that the urban explosion and unbridled growth had on society. Color de Trópico Vol. 2 confronts you with a new expressive rebellion, that of the new heterogeneity, the diversity of the new social organization and the struggle for survival. New styles raise their voices, in the face of all this urban complexity we already know that traditional genres, far from reacting passively, returned to the charge of cumbia, joropo, merengue coexisting against rock and roll, but this rock and roll opened the doors and it evolved with them in the form of rock (just), pop, soul, jazz, highly sophisticated funk. But, as you can see in Color de Trópico Vol. 2, the influence of Caribbean modernity also stomped on with new rhythms such as ska, rocksteady, reggae, originating in Jamaica and represented in Venezuela by the group of brilliant good vibes such as Las Cuatro Monedas and its theme "Buena Suerte". Salsa also arrives, still grown only in New York, San Juan, and Cali but which now extends to Caracas and of which the tasty "María La Bella" by Nelson y sus Estrellas stands out. The mixture is the reality of the social network of the city, chaotic, dynamic, incessant, recipient of massive migrations from all parts of the country, mainly from rural areas to the capital, but also from Colombia, the Caribbean, Europe, everything to a speed faster than it could have the ability to be assimilated. Groups like the psychedelics of Grupo Almendra add Latin percussion to their rock band flirting with trends such as disco music or even samba in "Tutti Frutti" and the powerful brass section of the reference jazz band in Venezuela, such as La Retreta Mayor, with its funky jazz "Líquido Elemento", a spectacular vision of a Caracas that never sleeps between textures of saxophones and trumpets in its wide avenues. With Color de Trópico Vol. 2, El Palmas and El Dragón Criollo show the versatility that musical groups usually have in Venezuela, in which the sophistication and vision that they already had at this very important moment continues to surprise. Also features Los Kings, Mario Y Sus Diamantes, Orquesta La Playa, and Anselmo Y Su Conjunto Pajueliao.
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ELPALMAS 007LP
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Acid Coco left Colombia many years ago, but it's never far away. Channeling cumbia, punk, champeta, reggaeton and other tropical rhythms with electronic sounds in recording sessions that doubled as therapy, the Colombian duo have created a work of visceral emotion that traverses musical landscapes. Love, Colombia, and memories of past lives are some of the sources that inspired the group in the process of writing and creating their debut album, Mucho Gusto. These tracks were recorded over two frenzied sessions in Geneva. Creation proved to be the panacea and Colombia the shelter, a place where they could rinse away their demons by evoking dreams of yore, both musically and spiritually. On Mucho Gusto, you will find rhythms that speak of the density and diversity of Colombia's music. These are styles of music made to make people dance, whether next to an ear-shattering picó sound system, a fanfare of brass, an accordion-led trio or even a family vitrola. On "Yo Bailo Sola" the cumbia beat is unmistakable, yet they break with the dogma of tradition (a recurring theme), the song's female protagonist telling her would-be dance partner to leave her be, she wants to dance alone. The Afro-Colombian party music of champeta takes hold on "Caminando Vas" and "La Chancla", which use the bargain-bin Casio SK-5 keyboard for a sound heard on picó sound systems up and down the Colombian coast. "El Amor de Mis Amores" continues the champeta love-in, its lyrics finding the duo in playful mood, speaking of "The Love of All Loves" who is instantly forgotten when the romance ends. There are tragedies both personal and national, speaking of a Colombia where, despite a peace agreement, activists and social leaders are still being killed on a regular basis. The scars across Colombia still have some way before they can heal, a theme that haunts the cumbia "El Lamento". "Sin Salida" is them at their most punk, transposing Suicide to the Caribbean coast with distorted bass and lo-fi beats, "Solo Estás Tu" brings techno merengue (a popular style from the '90s) bang up-to-date, and a softer side emerges on "Siempre En Mis Sueños", which fuses a ballad with a reggaeton beat. "Nuevo Día" has a pop influence which recalls the beginning of the Rock En Español movement in Latin America. Final track "Me Voy" pays tribute to son montuno, salsa being one of the main musical motors of these two Colombians.
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ELPALMAS 008LP
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Contento like to label their music "salsapunk" -- smart, witty stuff with a deceptively simple home-made aesthetic. It could be salsa played by AI robots, but conceived by a duo with the playful sparkle of those Swiss master producer-musicians, Yello. Contento are two expatriate Colombians who like to make people happy. Geneva-based Paulo Olarte is a member of Acid Coco, El Dragón Criollo, and La Jungla, as well as recording under his own name. Former native of Medellín and current resident of Barcelona, Sebastian Hoyos, aka Sano, is a DJ and producer who has released his own brand of minimalist Latin house for the Cómeme label in Berlin. Between 2016 and 2019, they met on and off in Barcelona and Geneva to lay down some of their ideas. The eight best numbers became Lo Bueno Está Aquí, their debut album. The result is something that you might describe as "retro-smart": it does indeed remind you of older sounds like Nuyorican boogaloo from the '60s and cumbia from the golden age of Discos Fuentes, yet it's also modern and refreshingly different. The two musicians create a sonic palette from bass, piano, organ, guitar, a range of keyboards, assorted percussion instruments, and the vintage drum machines that, along with a liberal use of distortion, contribute to the album's signature sound. "Dale Melón" opens the album and establishes a template for much of what follows. Starting with the beat, beat, beat of the drum machine, bass, guitar, keyboards, and percussion are all drip-fed into the mix and supplemented by a simple, insistent vocal refrain and the raw alto sax of the Venezuelan saxophonist they met in the Barcelona studio where the recording was finished off. The alto sax helps to color the delicious "Paso Palante", which kicks off the second side with ringing guitar and keyboards to create a feel somewhere between Colombia's Pacific coast and Central Africa. The slightly demented vocal refrain is repeated ad nauseam and the overall effect recalls the off-kilter sound of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Staff Benda Bilili. Much of the album, in fact, is slightly skewed and disarming, as if the spirit of Thelonious Monk presided over its recording. "Loco Por Tu Amor", for example, could be taken from a soundtrack to a cheap Latin horror film, simultaneously unsettling and thrilling. The glorious "De Todas Maneras" could be a rough-cut for Ray Barretto's suave and slinky "Cocinado". "Pelo Negro" is an insistent trademark mix of cumbia and boogaloo, with tongue-in-cheek vocals that are positively expansive.
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