Various Artists - Panama! Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-1975 Double Vinyl

SNDWLP007 - Near Mint

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.