Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-75

Review in the Telegraph (UK newspaper)

A fly-blown buffer zone between North and South America, Panama barely registers on the international cultural radar. Indeed, its one significant musical export, the loping cumbia rhythm, is generally associated with Colombia. Yet these grainy ’60s and ’70s recordings by bands you will absolutely never have heard of constitute one of the year’s most exhilarating listens so far.

The sheer heat generated by blasting salsa instrumentals such as Los Exagerados’s Panama estra bueno y ma makes most modern recordings seem pitifully tight and sterile by comparison. There’s an all-or-nothing fervour of the kind that can only be achieved through live, one-take recording – a relentless, super-fast piano figure providing a springboard for brass solos of truly nerve-jangling intensity.

The tempos settle slightly as the music reflects the influence of American funk and Trinidadian calypso. Victor Boa’s Soy Solo Para Ti has a glorious, quasi-African piano swing, while Bolito y Su Tentacion’s incandescent jam Descarga Tentacion has the feel of ’70s Latin New York at its most sophisticated. A plinking salsa-flavoured calypso, sung by one Lord Cobra, completes this revelatory album. Mark Hudson

BARCODE: 827565012220

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Track List:

1). Los Exagerados – Panama Esta Bueno y…Ma
2). The Exciters – Exciters Theme
3). Bush y Sus Magnificos – Nana Nina
4). Victor Boa – Soy Solo Para Ti
5). Freddy y Sus Afro Latinos – Maltrato
6). Papi Brandao y Sus Ejecutivos – Viva Panama
7). Los Silvertones – Old Buzzard
8). Los Fabulosos Festivals – El Mensaje
9). The Exciters – New Bag
10). Bolita y Su Tentacion Latina – Descgarga Tentacion
11). Los Caballeros de Colon – Con Los Caballeros
12). Los Dinamicos Exciters featuring Ralph Weeks – Let Me Do My Thing
13). Los Mozambiques – Viva Tirado
14). Maximo Rodriguez y Sus Estrelles Panamenas – Mambologia
15). Lord Cobra and Pana-Afro Sounds-Rocombey

Read a review of the record in Dusted Magazine