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Funkydoo's DJ Smalley recently spent 4 months getting about in South America and during this time he was keeping a beady ear out for the musical influences that were juddering the sidewalks over there on that edge of the world. This here is his first Worldy Music Culture Vulture report and mix that he's put together for the Funkydoo music blog.

Hi all, and welcome to my first Worldy music report! It's basically just a short babble about musics that I came across on my travels and I've also put some tracks together in a mix so that you can have a listen first hand to what I appear to be rambling about. This is music from a different culture, so it's not likely to be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope you enjoy it in some way as, if not anything else, it's an interesting glimpse at something different.

So, my first music of choice was inspired by a recent trip around the Southern half of South America. There were so many new types of music to experience across that amazing continent, most of which us brits know of, but have never really experienced first hand - and of course in this I mean the Brazilian Samba, Argentinian Tango and the subject of this report - SALSA.

I must admit, that in the past, whenever I have thought of Salsa, I have thought about an awkward gaggle of bored couples in community centre halls trying to spice up their lives with tuesday night Salsa lessons. I think of B-list celebrities in over-glittery sequin suits and annoying Strictly Come Dancing judges ranting on about their 'passionate' performances. I think of overly perfect routines full of overly fake smiles and all these things have made me think that Salsa is not really very 'cool'.

However, one night in a dark little club in deepest Argentina I was treated to the music in a way that I never expected to see it. The club was full of a young and mainly Argentinean crowd and for most of the night the DJ's were playing European music, the usual, house, R&B, reggaeton, euro, pop, rock and I was mingling around with a group of gringos on the side of the dancefloor. It was nothing extra-ordinary, young people getting drunk and dancing rather miserably to average music.

Then, at midnight, as if the DJ's had decided to take the crowd back to their roots, he dropped a huge traditional salsa track and then proceeded to play an hour or so of incredibly lively and funky music that I had never heard before. The place exploded into life and I was quite taken aback. This wasn't rehearsed routines and fake smiles, it was generally cool 'kids' having a whole load of fun to quality music. They were throwing each other around, the mood was suddenly incredibly sexy - and a bit like when the old English kids used to pair up for the 'slowy' at the end of the night, the boys are girls were coupling off with their favoured partners for a good old swing on the dancefloor.

Me, being a non-spanish speaking gringo with two left feet when it comes to Salsa dancing, didn't stand a chance. So, as the two American girls that I had befriended in the club earlier were whisked away from me by two dashing latin dudes with all the moves, I was resigned to sitting back, supping my beer and just watching the fun unfold. And fun it was. Real fun, something that I personally think is often lacking in the clubs back home nowadays.

Hmm, grumpy. Maybe, I have been treated to so much good music from our own shores over the years that I sometimes become too fussy if the music in clubs here is not 'perfect' and I take our own club music for granted. Or, maybe this salsa dancing fun unfolding in front of me was just all so new and fresh - so as a DJ it was like a kid playing with a new type of toy. Or, of course, maybe I had just simply had too many bottles of Quilmes and would have enjoyed the DJ playing crazy frog all night. Whatever it was, I really liked it and it inspired me to make this little mix.

THE MIX

So, what is the music in this mix? It's Salsa Music and to be honest, I'm not totally sure if it's good Salsa music or not. All I can say is that it's a collection of music that I like. Some of it has come from the iPod of Inti who was my guide for a couple of days in Chile, some of it has come from chatting to people in the clubs of Argentina and some of it has come from interrogating the beautiful thing that is Google. Either way big thanks must go to Inti as he introduced me to most of the artists and styles that you are listening to here.

I learnt that Salsa is hugely popular across South and Central America and it appears to have originated in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the ethnic latin communities within New York. Salsa bands have also popped up all over though and this mix also features music from Venezuela and the seemingly ever popular source of quality modern Salsa - Columbia.

The mix kicks off in Columbia with the popular modern band Grupo Niche. They had a couple of albums on the iTunes that all sounded pretty special if you're into this kind of thing. Then we moved up to Puerto Rico with a live recording from the much more traditional Gilberto Santa Rosa. Back to Columbia on Track 3 with my personal favourite band from this collection, La 33. This track is a a wild saxytronic reworking of the pink panther theme tune and I loved it's quirkyness. Cuba was our next destination with another traditional South American sounding piece from a band called Mangu.

We slow down the pace on track 5 with a band that emerged from the Bronx in New York called Salsain and then with track 6 we turn up the heat again with a stiffer and more percussive Cuban salsa number from Salsa Cubana. Back to New York on track 7 with a piano led tune from Grupo Latin Vibe that screams out Latin America from the off - the kind of track that inspired many a great house tune back in the day.

Venezuela was our next destination with one of the traditional masters of the Genre, Oscar de Leon. A beautiful piece of music I must admit, and it proves that in this kind of music, the old masters can rock it alongside the new boys with equal levels of energy and quality. Slowing the pace right down to 65 bpm on track 9 with a balladic and latino collaboration between Jose Feliciano and Marc Anthony. This took us nicely to track 10 which is another slow, but increasingly funky Boogaloo track from LA 33 again.

Marc Anthony, who is married to Jennifer Lopez apparently, is Puerto Rican and he appears to be a bit more 'poppy' than the rest. His tracks have plenty of pizazz though and he seems to be well respected in the scene. He brings us track 11 before we move onto an incredibly jazzy track from Afro-Cuban Jimmy Bosch - the jazz breakdown on this is simply outstanding!

Then, with track 13 we have a fully live ten minute explosion of amazing Salsa music from another New York don, Victor Manuelle - a live performance I would love to have witnessed myself to be honest. And, finally, we finish off with the unbelievable vocal talents of Puerto Rican princess of salsa 'India'. Most of us will know India from her breathtaking vocals on Master at Work's 'To be in Love' but here you can catch her singing from her roots, Salsa, alongside the ever present Marc Anthony.

So, that's it, I kind of like it - i'll probably never play it out in the UK, because any salsa night that anyone puts on here will, no doubt, be full of bored couples in sequin suits, but i've enjoyed learning a little bit about a different cultural music. I also hope you enjoy the mix too and if so, i'll maybe do another one of these reports about another music some time in the future.

For now though, thanks for reading and please 'LIKE' this page above so that it'll update your facebook news feeds as and when a new mix is uploaded. Also, don't forget you can listen to all of the mixes by clicking the links on the ARCHIVE box on the right side of this page.

Adios Amigos

Smalley x