It’s quite common to find compilation records in Latin America that started out as a corporate marketing strategy. I have a few LP’s from a natural gas company in Venezuela – which are pretty good. However, I’m not sure if Goodyear Tires had a successful branding campaign when they dropped this collection. The mixture of salsa, pop, cumbia, and Henri Mancini soundtrack music is just downright weird. Most of the songs aren’t that great and there doesn’t seem to be any method to the triple album’s selections.
However, all this is soon forgotten with the inclusion of just one song: the synth monster Montuniando by Colombian pianist Juancho Vargas. The track reminded me of the music Cuban Juan Pablo Torres was doing in the 70’s than anything else, peep the post I wrote about him a while back. Juancho Vargas is probably better known for his big band style cumbia/jazz and not so much this experimental style of salsa/son montuno. One a side note, the album was produced by the Colombian label Sonolux. There are references to a FM radio station in the Colombian town of Sogamoso and a reference to possibly some tire service chain. Perhaps they handed these out to their customers. Anyway….Enjoy!
1. Juancho Vargas: Montuniando
Super Sonido 
great track, love the synth in this 🙂
When I hear moog stuff I always think of a band in the Flinstones playing a cat underwater.
I really wish Salsa explored the moog more. Great track!
Great!
Wow, great tune! I have a Vargas record with a cool synthy cover of La Murga de Panama. But it fizzles out after a bit whereas this one just keeps going.
I picked up a bunch of these company LPs when I was in Colombia (Goodyear, Firestone, some cement company) and 95% of them sucked. I feel like they may have been produced at Xmas time as a corporate promo/thank you.