Funky Bocas / Baila Muchacha (Yellow)

In 2006, the UK reissue label, Soundway, dropped the first volume of their “Panama!” series. Curated and compiled by Roberto Gyemant, this first compilation -and the subsequent two volumes- unleashed long-lost salsa tunes, sweet soul and funk cuts, cumbias, calypsos, and many other ’60s and ’70s Latin sounds to an unsuspecting world of music lovers. But noticeably, rock recordings were absent.
As the U.S. began exporting early proto-rock in the 1950s, with the Brits responding in kind with an invasion of their own, rock and roll became the defining sound of the ’60s. Mexico was inundated in La Onda, its tide sweeping onto other Central and South American nations, with countless outfits having seen their music rediscovered, cataloged, and reissued over the years. Curiously, no rock recordings have been documented coming out of Panama.
Until now.
While the story is fascinating, much of Panama’s rock scene has been largely unwritten. As we came to learn, many bands formed for very short periods of time throughout the ’60s and ’70s throughout and near the U.S.-controlled Canal Zone, with just a trickle dropping into one of Panama’s recording studios to lay down a couple of songs before disappearing back into obscurity, leaving behind only an etching of a moment on a vinyl 45. Of the recordings made and pressed, only a few copies have survived to the present day. Some were only pressed as incredibly limited radio station promos, never receiving a proper public release.
In collaboration with Tamayo Records, Discodelic are humbled to bring you all “Walk On,” a series of seven 45s (of which these two are the first) featuring 14 cuts from a dozen rock outfits that played in Panama through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. These reissues will be the first time that any of these recordings will be made available outside of Panama to represent the psychedelic landscape of an era and area long gone. Once all seven 45s are launched, an accompanying book will also be made available that details Panama’s incredibly unique and scrappy rock history, as well as in-depth write-ups and interviews with musicians of the bands featured as part of this effort.
We hope you enjoy these recordings as much as we do, and please, stay tuned. Jesus Iñiguez.