Various Artists: Bachata Roja: Acoustic Bachata From the Cabaret Era [IASO Records]
Bachata is a style of music that grew from rural party music in the Dominican Republic in the early 60s and ultimately ascended to massive popularity when it was electrified in the 80s. For much of its history, Bachata was overshadowed by merengue, which had been officially established as the national music of the Dominican Republic during the 31-year reign of Rafael Trujillo, which ended in 1961. These acoustic recordings from some of the genres best-known early artists are uniformly simple, with fluttering acoustic guitars, steady hand percussion beats, and some truly wonderful singing that highlights Bachata's roots in the slow bolero form. The recordings are charmingly unadorned, but not really lo-fi. Rafael Encarnación's sweet tenor alone makes the compilation worth a listen, but this is a disc that takes a musical form you may have never realized existed and makes you feel immediately familiar.

-by Joe Tangari