Format: | LP |
Availability: | Out of stock |
VAMPI292
08/12/2023
Hard salsa with rocking tropical electric guitar! First time reissue, audio remastered from the original tapes, with in-depth liner notes and augmented by three smoking bonus tracks. Príncipe y Su Sexteto, from Caracas, Venezuela, were early pioneers of "salsa con guitarra eléctrica" (salsa with electric guitar), a subset of the salsa genre where the electric guitar is the main melodic rhythm instrument, often taking the spotlight in place of the piano and brass section. They were the perfect combination arriving at the right moment, when salsa spontaneously emerged as a new musical movement of the working-class youth of the barrios in Caracas. Príncipe's 1967 debut album, featuring powerful Afro-Latin rhythms like guaguancó and pachanga played with youthful exuberance and originality. A truly unique sound from the dawn of salsa in Venezuela. All the compositions are original to the band, and hold up really well more than 50 years later. Though the arrangements and playing are deceptively simple, the effect is both mesmerizing and energizing, like early rock 'n' roll fed through a Caribbean filter.