I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on salsa. I know next to nothing about music south of the equator. But music is music and when it rocks hard, it's apparent, regardless of genre. This music rocks extremely hard. A compilation of Columbian music from the 1960 to 1976 released on the Disco Fuentes label, these artists were apparently synthesizing influences from New York, Puerto Rico, African rumba and highlife, Caribbean calypso and Columbian cumbia, gaita, fandango and porro.
From start to finish the album has an intensely driving pulse that would rival the greatest dance music from any time or place in its ability to make you want to dance. Over the course of the album sounds vary from hard-edged salsa like the opener "Salsa Na Ma" by Fruko y Sus Tesos to mellow highlife-inspired African sounds like those of Wganda Kenya's Eloyo and all points in between.
Fans of Latin American music will eat this up. Columbia! The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes would also make a killer introduction to Latin American music since it's compromised of some of the most intensely hard-rocking salsa I have come across. Musicians will be blown away by the musicianship on display here - the way-ahead-of-the-beat bass lines, for example, are unbelievably propulsive and a true education in how to make people want to move. The horn sections, too are outrageously hip, and the percussion is tight as hell. Insane! Off The Hook! Totally On Fire!
