Sin Limite

El Travieso is the nom de plume of one Candido Fabre Martinez. He's the son of Candido Fabre Sr, who was a Cuban singer famed for his quick-thinking improvisations with the long-lived outift, Candido Fabre y su Banda, one of the first bands to make it big outside the island. But where his father made his name with tried-and-tested genres such as son and charanga, El Travieso is socking it to us with reggaeton, that unsubtle mix of Jamaican dancehall, Trinidadian soca, and Latin American hip-hop beloved of Cuban youth, with dodgy Spanish-language lyrics that put equal rights back a couple of centuries.

El Travieso loosely means ‘Naughty Boy’, which gives us the gist from the off. Opening number ‘Hora Que Me Llamen Voy’ is a swinging dance track composed by Candido Fabre Sr, which El Trav gives a reggaeton-son makeover. It works beautifully, thanks to the congas of Wilfredo Alonso, trumpeter Manuel Martinez and beats that are infectious rather than relentless. The other Fabre Sr track, ‘De Jala Que Vaya’, is a cumbiaton imbued with choppy Colombian bounce and a joyful glee. The remaining eight tracks, each composed and arranged by El Travieso, are more hardcore: the merengue ‘Bailarlo Sudao’ and ‘El Maquinon’ are for aficionados only.