Album: Various Artists, Palenque Palenque! Champeta Criolla etc (Soundway)

These intense in-yourface floor-fillers defy all the laws of musical appreciation by being simultaneously mindnumbingly repetitive and peculiarly involving.

The explanation, of course, is that even if structurally the songs are mostly just endlessly repeating choruses held down by tightly circling bass figures, the devil is in the details – and the power of real musicians playing together as if their lives depend on it. I’ve surprised myself by the number of times I’ve returned for more.