Pachanga Time

With its gorgeous retro cover art and deliberate golden-age smarts ­ Side A was recorded using ribbon microphone technology – Pachanga Time feels like a crate-digger's rare find. That the album is the handiwork of redoubtable, Leeds-based Charanga del Norte, one of Britain's leading Latin combos and only authentic charanga and pachanga orchestra, makes sense. Under the aegis of flautist and bandleader Sue Miller, they have spent the best part of two decades keeping alive the sound of charanga – the son-influenced Cuban dance music performed on the likes of violin and flute. Previous LPs – Look Back in Charanga and Our Mam in Havana [sic] – hint at the good-humoured groove within, and Pachanga Time similarly manages to bottle the fun and liveliness of a genre with tongue-in-cheek flair.

It's all here: piano, timbales, congas, guiro, strings, deployed on a New York charanga repertoire that had the city sizzling back in the day. Two takes on Ramiro Reye's ‘Goza La Vida’ (‘II’ features legendary flautist Eddy Zervigón), highlight the difference in timbre between metal and wooden charanga flutes. Side A's five titles – there's also Ray Barretto's ‘Te Traigo Guajira’ and Charlie Palmieri's ‘Bronx Pachanga’ – reappear live on Side B. Live take or multi-tracked recording? They let the listener decide.