Consumer Guide Album

Cumbia Cumbia: A Selection of Colombian Cumbia Recordings [World Circuit, 1991]
Hits back to the '50s from Colombia's Disco Fuentes label, with history sweeping consistency aside--any gringo can tell Conjunto Tipico Vallenato's accordion side-closers are country and Rodolfo's coffee commercial isn't. But even if the accordion stuff belongs on a vallenata comp, it passes muster on a collection where at least half the songs bristle with the exigente hooks that sell classic pop the world over. And the unmistakable beat runs down a consummate South American groove, halfway between Euro clomp and Afro hipshake. A-