Juan Bautista was pivotal in accelerating Bachata’s emergence into the mainstream of Dominican music in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Bautista had enjoyed strictly regional success as a rural bachatero for much of the ‘80s, before relocating to Santiago at the end of the decade. In this period artists such as Luis Varga and Anthony Santos began to inject new energy into Bachata by incorporating electric instrumentation into their ensembles, experimenting with more danceable bolero rhythms, and taking advantage of multi-track recording technology. Bautista was quick to incorporate these innovations and in early 1990 he cut “Asesina,” a tune whose rapidly picked electric guitar lines would greatly influence the next generation of Bachata guitar players. Disco de Oro compiles 20 of Bautista’s best recordings from this period. Despite the absence of Bautista’s earlier acoustic hits such as 1984’s sublime “Estoy Aqui Pero No Soy Yo,” Disco de Oro provides a compelling glimpse of one of Bachata’s finest performers in a moment of artistic transition that would have profound implications for the evolution of Dominican popular music.