DIGGING INTO
VENEZUELAN SOUNDS
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Latest releases
Estos son Los Calvos (LP)
Few have done as much for salsa in Venezuela as band leader, composer, and pianist Ray Pérez. He burst onto the scene in the mid-60s with his group Los Dementes, creating the blueprint for guaguanco, pachanga, and boogaloo in Venezuela. When the name salsa began to be used as something of a catch-all-term he was still at the forefront, recording two hugely-popular salsa albums with Los Dementes in 1967. Remarkably, that very same year, he also recorded two albums with a brand new group, Los Calvos. This would be their spectacular debut.
El Dragón Criollo - Sentencia/La Número Uno (Single 7'')
“Sentencia ” goes beyond the ordinary, it is the product of the countless styles that Paulo Olarte has perfected throughout his career as a producer, at a sound and musical level, it has innumerable elements that have influenced his entire personal life and that, without a doubt, comes to shake us with its extreme flavor
Los Calvos -...y que calvos
A mixture of styles on amazing instrumentation, scat vocal shrapnel with rumba, guaguancó with drums, salsa brava with Venezuelan jazz, in short, the expression of its name: sandunga, Latin spark, the Caribbean flavor that is discovered by dancing. By the time Ray Pérez exhibited this project for the first time, his talent was known to be inexhaustible, among the myriad of albums in which he has participated throughout his extensive career as a musician, composer, arranger, and pianist, he launches this project overwhelming, Los Calvos, a musical gem between different eras, with “el negrito Calaven” on vocals, a perfect mix between popular expression and high caliber music with an innate naturalness.
Acid Coco - Camino al mar
Stories that could have spilled out of Cali’s salsatecas, Cartagena’s picós, or any club the world over, yet through Paulo’s canny production there is no doubt where we are. Dembow, cumbia, reggaeton, even on the spiky Caribbean folk of final track “Por Las Venas” or chiptune melody of “Aquí y Allá”, there is nowhere we can be other than on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It’s music that comes from lived experiences, from growing up in Colombia’s clubs, and through its violence and daily realities. Culture is being passed forward.
El Dragón Criollo - Pase lo que Pase
On his debut album as El Drágon Criollo, Colombian producer, musician and singer Paulo Olarte Toro finds a meeting place between bouncing Caribbean cadences and dance floor- ready beats that threaten to propel your body into motion.Pase Lo Que Pase (translating as Whatever Happens, Happens) is one of those albums that threatens to take you some place new, in this case to the Colombian Caribbean some time around the 80s or 90s, when analog synths, punchy drum machines and Afro- Caribbean guitar melodies ruled the roost.
Sabor Surf (Venezuelan Surf Compilation)
A historical moment for us as a label, for the first time, we bring in one LP the most important surf-rock Venezuelan bands from the ’60s. This is a curatorship that has never been done before and here you will find music from Los Supersónicos, Los Dangers, Los Impala, and Los Blonders. Sabor Surf was selected by Bandcamp as one of the best records and compilations from 2021.
Frank y sus Inquietos
Frank y sus Inquietos is a little-commented Venezuelan treasure in our time, an amazing, almost unknown jewel of Venezuelan hard salsa, treasured with zeal by music lovers of all times. This group is evidence of the musical communion of the young Caracas of the late sixties with the sounds of the Caribbean in their nascent marriage with urban aggressiveness. The repertoire of songs by the homonym Frank y sus Inquietos (1969), has an exquisite imagination, brims with vitality, authentic vocals and choirs, overwhelming percussion, strong bass, and fierce piano conducted by Frank González.
Contento - En Lancha Pal Futuro
Those two über-hip expatriate Colombian ‘salsapunks’ are back. Contento’s first album, Lo Bueno Está Aquí, was an artistic and critical success: chosen, for example, by the UK’s discerning national newspaper, The Guardian, as their global album of the month in November last year. Their follow-up, En Lancha Pal Futuro, builds seamlessly on its predecessor adding more Salsa, Cumbia, Champeta, and Guajira. Yet it could not have been recorded in more different, and difficult, circumstances. Given such extraordinary circumstances, En Lancha Pal Futuro is a remarkable follow-up. Fans and devotees can expect another sure-fire album of the month.
Jaguar - Madremonte
Jaguar debut album with heavy zouk-inspired groove, encapsules the down-home sound of Colombia’s Caribbean Coast Minimal cumbia, funk Caribe, post-disco salsa, Afrobeat meets Arthur Baker; there are many names that could be given to the music made by Colombian duo Jaguar, but none of them quite do it justice. Here is their debut single “Síguele el paso”
Color De Trópico Vol 2 out Now
Musical Gems from Venezuelan´s hedonistic 60´s and 70´s fro the first time on vinyl is finally out. We also have in stock a few last item of the Vol 1. Head to pur website or you our bandacamp.
News
El Palmas + El Dragón Criollo Radio Show
On their monthly show El Dragón Criollo & El Palmas bring us old fresh and new fresh melodies and sounds from all over the tropics. They will also let us take a deep dive into the El Palmas Music Label.
Upadesa on digital and reissue
El Palmas Music presents the first digital release of one of the most innovative albums from Ángel Rada, one of the most interesting music experimentalists of Venezuela. He met Kraftwerk when they were recording at Kling Klang Studio, and also knew Klaus Schulze–who would become an example for him to follow. Our friends from Wah Wah Records have released a vinyl reissue of this collector piece, definitely an item you want to take a look at. Here we still have some copies on our Bandcamp, don’t miss it.
An Interview with El Palmas: Digging into Venezuelan Music Gems
Maurice Aymard (a.k.a El Palmas) lives in Barcelona but was born in Venezuela. Music represents an important part of his life both as a fan but also as a record shop and label owner, DJ, and industry professional. His first step in the business was opening a store in Caracas called Galaktika Records that soon became a label with a sub-label, too (this last one called Apersonal Music).
Los colores de aquel trópico
Dos cosas llaman la atención de este álbum recopilatorio desde el primer momento: su nombre y su carátula. Sobre el nombre, Color de Trópico, uno de sus dos productores, Paulo Olarte aka El Dragón Criollo, anota: Hay un momento en que yo me digo: bueno, estamos enfocados en el trópico, en un lugar que es Venezuela, pero que abarca mucho más, que se refleja en países como Colombia o Panamá. Y en efecto, es todo un colorido de sonidos diversos, salsa, jazz, funk, cumbia, rock, pero envueltos por el calor del trópico.
Contento - Lo Bueno Está Aquí
Contento like to label their music “salsapunk” – smart, witty stuff with a deceptively simple home-made aesthetic. It’s salsa of a kind, but not necessarily as we know it. It could be salsa played by AI robots, but conceived by a duo with the playful sparkle of those Swiss master producer-musicians, Yello. “The sound comes from what we have to hand in order to make the music…”, says the group.
Global album of the month
Blending salsa with electronic elements, Afrobeat and lo-fi vocals, the Colombian duo bring infectious positivity to a classic genre
Directed by: Gabriel Bonnefoy
Art Direction: Daria Mechkat
La Jungla / El Dragón Criollo
The rhythms, rhymes and rumbas of Africa and Colombia, via the Caribbean, come alive on this new 7” featuring Colombia’s El Dragón Criollo and a mysterious new outfit simply known as La Jungla.
Filmed and edited by Alejandro Bernal Rueda.
Written And Produced by El Dragon Criollo.
Rada: Tropical Cosmic Sounds from Space
Compilation made from the Albums Viveka, Impresiones Etnósonicas, Upadesa , Armagedon & The Third Wave Revolution Revolution and Continuvm .
Compiled by El Palmas.
Includes unlimited streaming of Tropical Cosmic Sounds From Space via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Daniel Grau "Freedom"
El Palmas Music is pleased to announce the release of “Freedom” the first single from the iconic Venezuelan producer Daniel Grau in more than 30 years. The song will be released in the forthcoming album El Mágico Mundo de Daniel Grau this year.
MUSIC WITH A HUMAN SOUL
El Palmas music is a record label, a DJ set and an expansive project to revere and inspire through passion for the living music, music that moves. We’re intertropical but we embrace every fusion and mixture as well because is in our nature. In this way, we try to bring in sounds with spirit, artists old and new, forgotten gems, flourishing talents of tropical, funk, disco, salsa, dub/reggae, afro, hip hop, bossanova, original and reissues in physical (12’’, 7’’) and digital formats. After 20 years in music, whether in mixing sessions or conquering the dance floor as a DJ, El Palmas combines the determination required for a unique set with a desire to contribute in music with great artists, releasing them on vinyl and selling their work around the world. El Palmas music, a tropical devotion.
