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Boogaloo, very much a product of the era to which it was born, saw one of the first fusions between predominantly black music genres meeting with Latin sounds. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B, rock and roll and soul with mambo. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand television program.

Bugalú Tropical is a compilation of tracks that helped the genre become increasingly popular in Peru during the 1950s. Peruvian artists of the time such as Alfredo Linares took on the sounds of merengue and added their own distinctly Peruvian flavour, resulting in boogaloo’s imminent success.

Mainly sung in Spanish, the compilation is a proud exemplar of the genre. With traditional hand claps and whistles to a rhythmic beat as heard in El Pito and Tito Chicoma’s ‘Clap Your Hands’.

Like many of the releases coming out of Vampi Soul, Bugalú Tropical is about capturing a particular moment in a particular place — one that you may never have suspected took place at all.