Los Angeles De Charly Greatest Hits CD

Split CDs are usually devoted to previously unreleased material. But Fonovisa Records often uses them as best-of collections; typically, a split CD from Fonovisa is a 20-song disc containing ten previously released songs by one artist and ten by another. Fonovisa usually picks two similar artists for their split CDs -- perhaps two romantic singers like Joan Sebastían and Marco Antonio Solís, perhaps two norteño bands like Los Rieleros del Norte and Adolfo Urias y Su Lobo Norteño. And on this split CD, Fonovisa shows listeners the parallels between the all-male band Los Angeles de Charly and the female quartet Aroma. Both of them are regional Mexican acts with a strong interest in cumbia; they don't embrace cumbia in a traditionally Colombian way, but rather, combine it with regional Mexican music and sleek Latin pop. The 20 songs on this 69-minute CD -- ten by Los Angeles de Charly, ten by Aroma -- don't cater to cumbia purists and don't pretend to be modeled after the classic Colombian cumbia of Leonor González Mina or Lucho Bermúdez. Nor are Los Angeles de Charly and Aroma pretending to offer traditional Mexican music -- this isn't an album of mariachi bands playing "Guadalajara" and "Cielito Lindo" any more than it is an Alberto Pacheco collection. But for those who hold regional Mexican music, Latin pop, and cumbia in equally high regard, this is an enjoyable CD. Whether Fonovisa exposes listeners to Los Angeles de Charly on "Mentiras," "Un Sueño," and the doo wop-ish "Amor Secreto" or Aroma on "Enamoradas" and "Ese Hombre," Greatest Hits is a likable demonstration of this type of Latin pop/Mexican/cumbia fusion. Pure cumbia? No. Pure Mexican music? No. Latin pop that can use both with pleasant results? Most certainly. ~ Alex Henderson

These two cumbia romantica acts are together for the first time in this DVD/CD collection. Also included are a photo gallery, biography, and discography.

Package includes DVD.