Alongside son and merengue, Republica Dominicana tightly focuses on the unmined treasure of bachata music: a particular style of Cuban music featuring intense African percussion, wily ringing guitar, and exotic Iberian-flavored melody. First on the bandwagon of what's sure to be an international explosion, Putumayo brings a fresh and exciting sound to fans of Afro-pop, Cuban, and various Latin music. A sampler rather than a cumulative compilation, Republica Dominicana highlights genre superstars from Juan Luis Guerra to Chichi Peralta and stylistic forefather Ramon Cordero, offering the listener choice cuts from which to further explore bachata and its relations. As with all the label's releases, this disc comes with extensive and finely detailed liner notes. The other side of the coin, in a manner, Republica Dominicana in its contrast of dark and light is especially recommended for fans of 1999's Putumayo Presents Cape Verde. --Paige La Grone

This compilation plays like a breathless epic through the sounds of the English, French, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, pointing out along the way the vivid signs of a much larger, more complex series of musical dynamics than colorfully garbed natives warbling a Harry Belafonte ditty to the twinkling melodies of a steel drum. In its sweep, this set takes in the Dominican Republic's tonados, salves, and work songs still heard in factories today; Haiti's vodu and merengue; and, in Jamaica, the tambu drumming heard only in Trelawny parish, call-and-response digging songs, and mento, the Jamaican form of Calypso that eventually evolved into reggae. Rich and immensely varied, Caribbean music is always rooted in African polyrhythms and call-and-response singing. Yet, as this collection suggests, from work songs all the way up to the most polished modern studio productions, its greatest pleasures are found in its many and varied conflations of Europe and Africa, the African roots that sprout exotic mutants of ancient European ballads, lullabies, and quadrilles. --Elena Oumano

Cuba, Puerto Rico, and New York gave us the rumba, bomba, plena, and salsa, but the rhythms of the merengue and bachata from the Dominican Republic are the fastest-growing musical genres from the Caribbean. This CD is a snappy introduction to that island's national beats. The merengue originated in its neighbor country Haiti in the late 19th century, and was developed in the towns of Cibao and Santo Domingo. It's marked by lighting-fast beats, zesty accordion and saxophone riffs, and infectious accents by percussion instruments like the guiro and maracas. This CD includes the "Perico Ripiao" merengue heard on "Que Pena" by Samuelito Almonte y Su Conjunto, some big-city techno-rengue sounds on Antony Santos's saucy "Coheli Ahi," and some New York-style rap-a-rengue on Blas Duran's hip-hop/house track "Crei." The bachata, which grew out of the Spanish bolero genre, is a slower, more syncopated sister to the merengue, with its high-tuned, central African guitar strains. It too comes in many moods and grooves, from the distinctive nasal vocals of Luis Segura's (the legendary Papa de la Bachata) "Los Celos" to the amorous love tones of Nelson Roig's "El Dueño de la Noche." This collection is a good sonic snapshot of this island's musical treasures. --Eugene Holley Jr.