Old school cumbia tunes – with plenty of raw rhythms and acoustic instrumentation in the mix! The package is a wicked batch of rare numbers from Colombia's legendary Discos Fuentes – most of which are from the early and mid 60s, recorded at a time when the imprint was really making some great waves in Latin music – coming up with a regional sound that was quite different than the popular New York modes of the time – and than the host of other scenes that tried to copy it! Instead, the tunes here work in these romping rhythms that really get to the heart of the cumbia vibe – often touched with a blend of jazz inflections and folkloric instrumentation, wrapped up beautifully together. Titles include "Lorenza" by Los Gavilanes De La Costa, "Cumbia Costena" by Alejandro Duran, "Ocaso Marino" by Los Satelites, "La Pollera Colora" by Los Corraleros De Majagual, "Remolino De Oro" by Abel Antonio Villa, and "Al Amanecer" by Los Cumbiamberos De Pacheco. LP, Vinyl record album

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A triple-time killer from the Colombian scene at the start of the 70s – one of those rare gems on Discos Fuentes that had the label setting a new sort of fire on its own, in comparison to the New York Latin generation! In addition to the cumbia tracks you might expect, the set's also got some killer guaguanco and descarga tracks – super-jazzy, and filled with lively interplay between the percussion at the core, and the criss-crossing of piano, tenor, and trumpet on the top! Peter Scott handles the vocals with Piper Diaz – and titles include "Hacha Y Machete", "El Mico", "Atiza Y Atala", "Ven A Colombia", "Cali Querido", "Guaguaco Supremo", and "El Cuento". LP, Vinyl record album

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Michi Sarmiento looks like a complete badass on the cover of this rare 70s album – and his group sounds completely badass as well – thanks to the wonderful mixing of modes that sometimes happened at the Disco Fuentes label! There's a loose vibe here that's quite different than New York Latin of the time – certainly an awareness of sounds up north, but recorded in this genre-stepping, rhythm-shifting way that also seems to echo more of the recording styles of the early decade before – with plenty of echo and other elements that only seem to further the intensity of the sound! Titles include "Viramundo", "Salsa Con Monte", "Olaya", "Me Enganaste", "Rosy", "La Vara Santa", "San Patricio", "Manue", "Se Apago", and "La Rumba Se Acabo". LP, Vinyl record album

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A cumbia record with a very unusual groove – served up by Argentine star couple Tita Duval and Roberto Rey, who were both living in Colombia during the 70s – where they clearly felt free to mess with lots of the usual modes of the local style! The record's definitely a cumbia set in its rhythms – but instrumentation and other elements change up nicely throughout – so there might be moogy keyboards on one track, a weird Varitone sax on another, and all these other groovy, funky touches that come into play over the course of the very cool record – a sense of musical freedom that hardly made the record a hit at the time, but which makes it plenty darn great all these many years later. Titles include "Safari Safari", "Zombie Rock", "Batukacuto", "A Mi Modo", "Claudia", "La Cumbia Mujer", "Noche De Cumbia", and "Hombre Pobre". LP, Vinyl record album

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Sexteto Miramar are putting plenty of salsa on their seafood on the cover – and they're also putting plenty in their music, too – as they work with a tight combo mode that owes a lot to the Joe Cuba Sextet of the mid 60s, and which also borrows a bit of Latin Soul from the New York scene too! The percussion is great throughout, and there's lots of vibes on the record too – which gives the whole thing the jazzy sophistication of some of Louie Ramirez's best recordings of the 60s, as the vibes ring out to color the grooves in all these wonderful ways! The whole record's got this lively small group feel that's right up there with the best mid 60s work on Fania, Cotique, and Alegre – and titles include "El Invierno", "El Gato", "Mambo Flamenco", "Salsa Boogaloo", "Mi Hermana", "Aprietame", and "Cuando Sali De Cuba". LP, Vinyl record album

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A completely different side of Colombian music than you'd know from Discos Fuentes and some of the other mainstream outlets from that scene – as the tracks here are all from the contemporary underground, and represent a really rich flowering of creative grooves and soulful modes! In truth, most of this work might hail from any hip spot in the global underground – save for the fact that the lyrics are often in Spanish, and many tunes have some slight reference to older musical modes – sometimes an acoustic element mixed in with more electronic instrumentation, sometimes a more direct reference! The quality of the tracks is wonderful – a really strong surprise to our ears, as we never would have discovered this music otherwise – and it represents a really great alternative so some of the more staid, often boring attempts to create a global fusion of elements in the mainstream. Titles include "Cada Paso" by Liannia, "Cumbia Lobina (ext mix)" by Dragao featuring Nidia Gongora, "Aquazero" by Systema Solar featuring Pedro Ramaya, "Oyele" by Jimena Angel, "Cuando Canto Grito" by Cerrero featuring Lucia Pulido, "El Leopardo" by El Leopardo, "Mujer Divina" by Salsangroove, "Gualayo" by Radio Rebelde Soundsystem, "La Negra Y El Fantasma" by Bareto, "Nunca Termina" by David Caneva Akle, "Manana Sera" by Ruzto, and "De Donde Vengo Yo" by Los Transatlanticos featuring Pilar Matarola. CD