Peace & Rhythm is excited to announce Close To Me, the new double 7-inch vinyl EP of four fun fan favorites from Locobeach. The tracks are all danceable cumbias familiar to the band’s followers as they are previously released on digital and have all been staples of their live sets over the years. This mini-box set of two hot dancefloor donuts will be great for DJ spins as well as aficionados and collectors, and comes with beautiful artwork courtesy of Selina Josephs. The backstory to the EP is an interesting one, and emblematic of our times. Just before the COVID-19...

  Cosas Raras is the new album from Argentina’s cumbia hero Rolando Bruno. On Cosas Raras Bruno and his band Grupo Arévalo romp through twelve tracks of their signature “cumbia trash” sound - a rough and ready mix of Peruvian-inspired cumbia, punk, and other vintage throwback musical and visual inspirations from pop culture (like UFOs, street food and horror movies), all spun together into a wild mashup. Cosas Raras is the group’s third album, and finds them traveling even farther afield—exploring Arabic and flamenco influences, Afro disco, Japanese pop, Latin American baladas, and even Dominican merengue. This last genre serves...

Peace & Rhythm are proud to announce the release of Richmond, Virginia-based salsa orchestra Bio Ritmo’s self-titled 2002 album, first time on vinyl (double LP), remastered from the original tapes, with three bonus unreleased live tracks and download card. The so-called “Green Album” has received a facelift for its vinyl debut, with a remix of the artwork and an interior gatefold spread chock-full of band memorabilia from the era. What’s more, the original album tracks have been properly mastered from the reel-to-reel tapes for the first time, and the added live recordings give fans a taste of what it was...

Puerto Rico’s Orquesta El Macabeo have a new release: the double single / 7-inch 45 “Ikiru” b/w “Familia” (Discos de Hoy/Peace & Rhythm/Chateaudisc/Lucha Libre Discos/Discos Machete). After recording the double LP live album Décimo Aniversario En Vivo En El Nido for the band’s 10th anniversary in 2018 and the motion picture soundtrack for La Ultima Gira (the Daniel Santos biopic from 2021), plus the reissues of Lluvia Con Sol (2013/2023) and Salsa Macabra (2010/2018), “Ikiru” and “Familia” are the first original songs released by the band since their last new full-length album, La Maldición del Timbal (2016).These two tracks will...

Just in time for Halloween / El Día de Los Muertos 2023 comes the scary good 45 from El Bigtoe y El Guámbito: Sabroso Y Espooky: El Encuentro Vol. 2, “Sabroso y Espooky” b/w “Mantequilla y Mermelada,” from Peace & Rhythm. The A side is a dark “sonidero cumbia rebajada” (a slowed-down cumbia done in the Mexican sound system DJ style), full of menace and spooky subterranean sounds, while the flip is a much brighter uptempo psychedelic tropical number that feels like a galloping horse ride clear across the Texas desert into Mexico. El Bigtoe y El Guámbito is a...