TITLE: Sofrito: Tropical Discotheque
LABEL: Strut
REVIEW: Sofrito Soundsystem is the London-based DJing team of Hugo Mendez, Frankie Francis and The Mighty Crime Minister. They specialize in unearthing rare Latin and African recordings, re-edited the often poor-quality vinyl and turning it into the raw material for smoking dance parties. This is their first full-length release, and it’s outstanding. Mendez’s specialty is French Caribbean music so we get great super-obscure tracks from Guadeloupe (4, 12) and French Guyana (10); the Colombian (1, 3, 7, 13) and West African (5, 6, 11, 15) tracks are equally good and very unlikely to be in the library of even the most hard-core collector. Except for 6, these aren’t beat-adding remixes at all – simply re-edits that clean up and EQ the originals for a better dancefloor experience. Simply a terrific compilation that belongs on your shelf next to the best of Soundway, Analog Africa and Strut – virtually every track here could be recommended for airplay.
REVIEWER: Bill Lupoletti
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2 (soukous), 7 (salsa Colombiana), 8 (descarga), 14 (calypso), 15 (salsa Africana)
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