Super Combo Los Tropicales - Violentisimo (1979)

The album "Violentísimo" (1979) is one of the most powerful, mature, and driving works in the discography of the Venezuelan orchestra Super Combo Los Tropicales. The album's title ("Violent" or "Super Powerful") fully reflects its musical content: by the late 1970s, the Maracaibo-based group had noticeably sped up the tempo, thickened the percussion, and produced an incredibly energetic mix of salsa, guaracha, and Colombian cumbia.

The album was released on the Discomoda label (Catalog number: DCM-1145) and marked the peak of the band's new lineup.

In the late 1970s, the boom in hard-edged, street-style New York salsa (Salsa Dura) was sweeping across Latin America, and Super Combo Los Tropicales was no exception. While maintaining its signature signature—the dominance of saxophones and clarinets over trumpets—the orchestra has created a much more aggressive, dense, and contemporary sound.

There are virtually no slow, romantic pauses; the album is designed as a nonstop dance marathon. The vocal duties on the disc are shared by the superb frontmen Nilson Tapia and Tony Monsalve. Their expressive singing and furious improvisations (soneos) perfectly complement the renewed, pumping rhythm of the percussion section.