Vampi Soul strikes again with fourth set of rare 60s cumbia gems

The fourth volume of Vampi Soul's dig into the Discos Fuentes/MAG vaults yields more amazing cumba swingers from the 60s

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After digging deep into the overwhelming archives of Discos Fuentes, Codiscos and Discos MAG in our previous volumes, this fourth instalment in the series “Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!” comprises 28 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos Tropical, all of them originally released between 1960 and 1984.

Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! Vol. 4 combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns. Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Check the tracklisting followed by a couple of audio clips below. 

Various Artists - Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!! Vol. 4

CUMBIA MÍA – CARLOS HAAYEN Y SU COMBO, CUMBIAMBERA – BOVEA Y SUS VALLENATOS, MI SENDERO – ÁLVARO CÁRDENAS Y SU CONJUNTO, AMORES CONMIGO – CARLOS ROMÁN Y SUS ESTRELLAS, CUMBIA DE VALLEDUPAR – LUIS ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ Y SU CONJUNTO, DAME UN BESITO MANUELA – PELLO TORRES Y SUS DIABLOS DEL RITMO, YOLANDA – BANDA 20 DE JULIO DE REPELÓN, EL CLARÍN DE LA MONTAÑA – ANDRÉS LANDERO Y SU CONJUNTO, CUMBIA PACHANGA – CUMBIA MOCHILA, TIBURÓN CON PELO – COMBO MARAVILLA, CUMBIA PANORÁMICA – A.M. CAMACHO Y CANO, LA TORMENTA – ELICEO GARCÍA Y EL CONJUNTO PALMA AFRICANA, SATANÁS – WASAMAYE AFRICAN ROCK, LEOBIGILDA – CONJUNTO MARAVILLA DE PALO ALTO 

SUÉLTALE LA TRENZA – MANUEL VILLANUEVA Y SU ORQUESTA, CUMBIA BOGOTANA – MANUEL CARABALLO Y SU CONJUNTO, LA AMANECEDORA – PEDRO SALCEDO Y SU COMBO, EL INDIO FIESTERO – LOS TIBURONES, LA SERRANÍA – CUMBIA BOLIVARIANA, CUMBIA QUE ME ALEGRAS – LOS CURRAMBEROS DE GUAYABAL, LA DEMOCRACIA – JUAN POLO VALENCIA, CUMBIA MARINA – LUCHO BETTER Y SU ORQUESTA, CUANDO TE VAYAS – FLORENTINO MONTERO Y SU CONJUNTO, SAL CON LIMÓN – JOE MONTES Y SU ORQUESTA, LA PALMA – TERE GARCÍA CON RAMÓN ROPAÍN Y EL TRÍO FANTASÍA, CUMBIA CONTINENTAL – LOS INDIOS SELECTOS CON ALBERTO PACHECO Y SU ACORDEÓN, EL MUNDO SE VA A ACABA – RUFO GARRIDO Y SU ORQUESTA, CUMBIA CASINO – MINCHO ANAYA Y SU COMBO MODERNO 

El Bailador de la Esquina collects rare Colombian salsa gems from Disco Fuentes

Vampi Soul's latest dig through the Disco Fuentes vault yields 10 mega rare Colombian salsa dura swingers from the 70s & 80s! 

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This curated collection comprises hard-to-find salsa 45s from the Discos Fuentes vaults—deep cuts that have long flown under the radar but still light up dancefloors today.

Among the featured artists are: Super Combo “Los Famosos”, Sexteto Manaure, La Protesta de Colombia… This compilation also includes a range of studio experiments and covers—where artists like Piper Pimienta, Galileo y Su Banda, and La Integración reimagined beloved hits, from boleros to vallenatos, through a distinctly Colombian salsa lens. 

Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Check out the first two tracks below.

 

 Various Artists - El Bailador de la Equina

Side A

1. SUPER COMBO LOS FAMOSOS - EL BAILADOR DE LA ESQUINA

2. SEXTETO MANAURE - BAJO EL TRUPILLO GUAJIRO

3. LA PROTESTA DE COLOMBIA - EL CAMPESINO

4. SONORA GUANTANAMERA - SAL Y AGUA

5. ORQUESTA SALSA PANAMERICANA - EL FANTASMA SALSERO

Side B

1. LA INTEGRACIÓN - HECHO Y DERECHO

2. GALILEO Y SU BANDA - NO ME CONVIENE TU AMOR

3. THE LATIN BROTHERS - LLORARÁS

4. PIPER PIMIENTA Y SU ORQUESTA - EL SUFRIDO

5. FRUKO Y SUS TESOS - SOY TU DUEÑO

One For The Weekend: Marta Kubišová

Czech 60s star Marta Kubišová and her Parisian counterpart Christie Laume make for a swingin' 7" double-sider from Munster.

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Munster Records' new split single comprises two killer pop dancers with plenty of psych fuzz guitars, punchy horns and funky beats: Marta Kubišová’s ‘Tak Dej Se K Nám A Projdem Svět’ a glorious LP-only song that has never available on a 45 before comes backed with Christie Laume’s in-demand  mod anthem ‘Rouge-Rouge.’ Have a listen to both sides of the single below. Get a copy of Munster's limited edition vinyl seven-inch via Bandcamp right here. 

Marta Kubišová was the most popular Czechoslovak female singer of the late 1960s, heading for an international career but banned by the communist regime until 1989. Compiled from the Supraphon archives, this 1966–1970 selection focuses on her roughest songs, with plenty of fuzz guitars and funky beats, punchy horns and razor-sharp organs underlying her deep and soulful voice.

Marta Kubišová’s first professional recordings for Supraphon date back to 1963, when she was aged 21. After spending three years singing jazzy tunes in provincial theatres, in late 1964 she followed her discoverer and mentor, the composer and future Supraphon producer Bohu­slav Ondracek, to the renowned Rokoko theatre in Prague. There she performed with superstar Waldemar Matuška and with her later Golden Kids bandmates Helena Vondrackova and Václav Neckar until 1968. In November 1968 Kubisova, Vondracko­va and Neckar, along with producer Ondracek, formed The Golden Kids. They recruited a rhythm section of young beat musicians, giving the sound a progressive contemporary touch. The horn section, on the other hand, featured top players from various pop, jazz and even classical orchestras. This explosive blend of personalities was responsible for some of the funkiest grooves that emerged from the rather conservative Supraphon studios. 

In 1969 Marta Kubišová and The Golden Kids recorded dozens of songs which were released on numerous seven-inch singles as well as on two albums: Micro-Magic-Circus and Golden Kids 1 (aka Music Box No. 1). The repertoire contained original compositions as well as cover versions of international pop, beat and soul hits with Czech lyrics. Within the group Marta was usually given the soulful or melancholic material, as it would suit her deep and dark timbre. Additionally, Supraphon finally released Marta’s first solo LP, Songy a balady, presenting a more personal selection of songs. Unlike most other Czechoslovak mainstream artists after the 1968 Soviet invasion, Marta was not scared to stand up for her opinions in public and her choice of lyrics reflected the cheerless political and social situation in the country. Hence at the peak of her popularity she became unbearable for the communist regime. 

By the end of 1969 she disappeared from radio and TV broadcast, and from February 1970 on she was prohibited from performing in public at all. Her last Supraphon single from summer 1970 – ‘Jakoby nic’ b/w ‘Hare Krisna’ – was already pressed, but save for a handful of stolen copies the complete edition was destroyed by the communist censors. Marta spent the next 20 years as a working mother, and also as a brave spokeswoman of the dissident civic movement Charter 77 with her close friend and the future Czech president Václav Havel. Eventually, with the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in late 1989 and in the slipstream of the velvet revolution, her voice returned to stages and recording studios. She sings actively to the present day. 

Check out the excellent Marta Kubišová compilation Ne! The Soul Of Marta Kubisova released by Vampi Soul right here. 

B-Side Wins Again: Grupo Pan

Caracas-based Grupo Pan hid their whumpin' heavy rock workout "Dices" on the flip of their 1972 Promus-label single. 

Munster Records reissues Grupo Pan's overlooked gem "Dices"

The mind-blowing ‘Dices’ somehow did not make it onto the Grupo Pan’s only album and instead found its home on the B side of a long-forgotten 1972 single. One can only wonder why this great song with a devastating guitar riff and an irresistible rhythm section was not granted a place in the grooves of the LP of the Venezuelan band… Late 60s hard rock sounds made by salsa musicians! 

First time reissue! 

On the flip, a rare hard psych gem from Peru by the one and only Jean Paul “El Troglodita”. First time single reissue! Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. 

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El alucinante ‘Dices’ no logró hacerse un hueco entre los surcos del único disco del Grupo Pan y, en su lugar, encontró su sitio en la cara B de un ya olvidadísimo single de 1972. Solo cabe preguntarse cómo un temazo de este calibre, con un riff de guitarra devastador y una sección rítmica irresistible, no fue incluido en su álbum homónimo… Sonido hard rock de finales de los 60 grabado por salseros! 

Reeditado por primera vez. 

En la otra cara, una rarísima joya de hard psych peruano a cargo del único Jean Paul “El Troglodita”. Primera reedición en vinilo!

Anibal Velásquez's salsa side gets spotlight on new Vampi Soul reissue

Colombian accordion ace Anibal Velásquez has his descarga experiments from Tremenda Salsa recirculated by Vampi Soul.  

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Aníbal "Sensación" Velásquez is one of Colombia's most innovative and prolific Costeño musicians, known as "El Mago del Acordeón" and "El Rey de La Guaracha". Velásquez grew up hearing Cuban music as well as the local rhythms of his region, and this led him to tinker with and transform the beats and melodies of the regional music encountered in his home city of Barranquilla during the 1950s and '60s. After playing a sideman in several groups, Velásquez formed his own conjunto with his elder brother Juan, a talented musician in his own right, and his younger sibling José. 

The album, En Tremenda Salsa is a perfect example of Aníbal Velásquez's wanderlust and restless creative spirit. A pioneer of the adventuresome mixing of rhythms, genres, and styles that was happening at the time in Barranquilla and the rest of coastal Colombia, in retrospect one can say that Velásquez was quite daring in combining the music and instrumentation of his native country with other Caribbean forms. In 1968, when he made this album, very few Colombians were attempting to record an accordion-led session of descarga, guaracha, boogaloo, guajira, guaguancó, and mambo, and for that Velásquez should be recognized as a forerunner of various other records by Lisandro Meza y su Combo, Los Corraleros de Majagual, Los Caporales del Magdalena, and Chico Cervantes y su Conjunto Internacional. 

The album kicks off with an intense and mesmerizing descarga featuring the guaguancó bass line, hot Cuban style piano and a heavy timbales solo, reminding one of the Tico-Alegre or Fania All-Stars jam session records. And yet, the accordion and caja are there throughout the tune, giving it plenty of "sabor colombiano" and distancing it from the New York or Havana sound. It bears repeating that for this album Velásquez and Fuentes added a crucial ingredient in salsa, the piano. 

Overall, the feeling on the album is of the loose, improvised jam session implied in the genre term descarga. Although En Tremenda Salsa is just one of many such records that Velásquez cut with his Cuban and Puerto Rican influences writ large on his sleeve, it is perhaps his most consistent and well-recorded, certainly only one of a few of his featuring prominent piano played in a salsa style, and this is why it is a highly sought after record by collectors in the know. Remastered from the original tapes, with original artwork intact. Includes two bonus tracks. 180 gram vinyl. Get a copy from Forced Exposure mailorder right here. Have a listen to the album below followed by Anibal Velásquez in action. 

Vampi Soul reissues early salsa gem from Venezuela's Los Dementes

Venezuela's Velvet label launched with the salsa dura album Manicomio a Locha! album from Ray Perez's Los Dementes in 1967.

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The Manicomio a Locha! album was the debut release for Venezuela’s Velvet label by gifted Caracas-based pianist Ramon Epiphanio 'Ray' Pérez and his trombone-led band Los Dementes employing a heady mix of styles which would come to be known as salsa. Drum heavy dance numbers featuring the percussion of the Quintero brothers and the distinctive vocals of sonero Pedro 'Perucho' Torcat make this historic 1967 rarity a sought-after collector’s item.

Now the LP has been lovingly restored, mastered from the original tapes, with its crazy-cool original artwork intact, preserving the legacy of Los Dementes for today’s generation of salsa lovers everywhere.

Get a copy of this first-ever reissue of the Los Dementes classic from Munster Records' subsidiary label Vampi Soul via Bandcamp right here. Check it out following the track listing below.  Find out more about Ray Pérez from the Superfly Records blog right here.  

Los Dementes – Manicomio a Locha! 

Side A

1. MANICOMIO A LOCHA

2. RAREZA EN MOZAMBIQUE

3. RICO GUAGUANCO

4. PUERTO LIBRE

5. TRES EN UNO 3

Side B

1. CORTE E PATA

2. ALMA CUMANESA

3. GUAJIRA CON BOOGALOO

4. FIESTA DE TROMBONES

5. TRES EN UNO 2

Midweek Mixdown: Back To Peru, Volume 2

The proto-punk sound of Lima's Los Saicos is a highlight of Vampi Soul's fab 60s garage survey Back To Peru, Vol. 2 below.  

Various Artists – Back To Peru, Vol 2 tracklist

Los Juniors – Tercera Piedra En El Sol

Los Drags – Dámelo Mi Nena

Los Shains – Guau Guau A Go-Go

Los Saicos – Intensamente

Kela Gates y Los Belkings – Loca Por Un Loco

Los Holys – Sueño Sicodélico

Los Datsuns – En El Sol

Los Teddys – Efectos

Los Far Fen – Camina, No Vueles

Beautiful Days – Full Of Fear (Iron Butterfly)

Los Comandos – Más De Ti

The Same People – Soñando Contigo

El Opio – Pusher

Los Zheros – Cuarto Oscuro

Los Jaguars – Tormenta En El Mar De La Tranquilidad

Telegraph Ave – Let Me Start

The Ringers – Down On My Knees Again

We All Together – Rock Of All Ages

Monik – Maybe I Know

Fe 59 – Estoy Brillando

Los Destellos – Onstá La Yerbita

Los Siderals – Dongoh

Jean Paul "El Troglodita" – Everything Is Gonna Change

Los Yorks – Ya Bebí Gran Rato

Melcochita Y Sus Invitados – Tirando Dedo

Pax – Sittin' On My Head

El Álamo – Pusher Men

Texao – Pelea Del Gobernador

Traffic Sound – The Revolution

Zulú – Haces Mal Pobre Chico

El Polen – Concordancia

Cacique – Cacique

Cerro Verde – I Lost A Game

Sudamérica – Yo No Sé Señor