Strictly Britxotica! - Palais Pop and Locarno Latin

Another superb adventure in the Britxotica! series, looking into rare and amazing exotic British recordings. For this exciting installment, we waltz to the British ballrooms for charismatic Cha Cha Chas, magical mambos, and a whole set of floor-filling fun!

Britxotica! (pronounced "Britzotica") neatly describes an odd and yet undocumented pre-Beatles British musical scene where famed UK composers as well as unknown singers and bandleaders threw convention on holiday and went wild, wild, wild! Put together by Jonny Trunk with DJ/tastemaker and Smashing nightclub legend Martin Green, these groundbreaking new compilations shine new light on lost and forgotten corners of British culture and sound.

For this, Part Four of our planned Britxotica! series, we head to the now-defunct British ballrooms for a set of dynamic and often extraordinary dance numbers - charming cha cha chas (including "Cha Cha Pop Pop"), lively Latin, and some fabulously freaky foot tappers including a classic version of Cerveza. Composers and artists include ballroom band legends such as Edmundo Ros, Ted Heath, and Stanley Black, but also we have found work by lost geniuses such as John Graven and John Warren who are very much worthy of reappraisal.

In short, this is another crazy and charismatic compilation of British music so obscure and rare that only Trunk Records could find and package it so superbly and with such effortless and comedic style.