Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Consumer Guide Album

The Rough Guide to Salsa Colombia [World Music Network, 2003]
By limiting itself to unwaveringly commercial Discos Fuentes product, this avoids not just folk and jazz but tropical ballads, because Discos Fuentes is old-fashioned enough to think commercial means danceable. Whether from veterans going back to the '50s or the Fania wannabes the label launched in the '70s or the revivalists of the '90s, the sinewy clave is locally inflected and the rhythms always take off. These are not famous names internationally, although Joe Arroyo and Fruko and Los Titanes may deserve to be. But everybody shares a commitment to the basics of salsa dura--and that collective thrust, not individual twists, is what keeps the pulse racing. A-