Rebelión Tropical: The Very Best of Fruko & Joe Arroyo

These tremendous songs from the Colombian legends – bass player, percussionist, producer and song-writer, Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincon (aka Fruko) and rough-diamond singer-songwriter and bandleader Alvaro José Arroyo Gonzalez – epitomise Colombian salsa. They created it, after all. Their 1970s collaborations and 80s solo projects remain astonishingly fresh. Opening with the classic big-band Los Coralleros de Majagual, which launched Fruko on bass, the first CD then moves to his first line-up, Los Tesos (The Bad Boys) with Arroyo's wild, high-pitched voice. Traditional and acoustic instruments give way to the electric Fania sound with raw percussion, sharp boogaloos, meticulous brass arrangements and infusions of traditional cumbias, vallenatos and boppy porrós.

The second CD follows Arroyo's solo life through the 80s with his band La Verdad. His creation of tropical salsa fused Cuban son into his upbeat ‘Joesón’ style, immortalised in hits such as ‘Echao Pa'Lante’. He used soca and calypso influences in the lilting son caribeño of ‘La Noche, his voice still excitingly sharp and interspersed with raucous squeals. His lyrics tell poignant stories of Afro-Colombian slave history, most famously in the deceptively upbeat ‘Rebelión’. Three decades on, these 38 songs are still played in clubs and are now also sampled into reggaeton and hip-hop.