The album’s string of scorching Timba classics is extended to five with “Tremenda Atmósfera”, which starts out funky and gradually accelerates to the fastest tempo of any track on the disc. One of the great debates in all music involves the merits of using a "click track". For the layman, this is a computer-generated pulse which the musicians hear while recording, but which is removed from the final version that the listener hears. It ensures that the tempo of the song never speeds up or slows down from beginning to end. This prevents lesser musicians from "rushing and dragging" but also prevents master musicians from manipulating the tempo for artistic reasons. Like the subject of "clave changes" (see our article "The Four Great Clave Debates"), click tracks are one of the most hotly-debated subjects among musicians, even Cuban musicians, who normally tend to be happily oblivious to such intellectual debates as they churn out their awe-inspiring music. As confirmed by their timba.com interviews, some of the towering giants of Timba, such as Giraldo Piloto (musical director of Klimax and Issac Delgado) and Juan Ceruto (musical director of Paulito F.G. and Issac Delgado) swear by the click track, and some of the best Timba CD's ever made (Paulito's "Con la Conciencia Tranquila", Issac's "La Fórmula", and Klimax's three masterpieces) were recorded with a click track. Virtually every pop record made in the United States and Europe in the last 20 years was recorded with a click track, along with almost every track in the Top 40 of every major commercial radio station, Latin or otherwise. On the other side of the coin, we have groups such as Los Van Van, Manolín, Bamboleo, and NG La Banda, who record without a click. Taking a novel hybrid approach are albums such as Michael Spiro's highly acclaimed "Batá Ketu" which uses a carefully modified click incorporating sophisticated tempo changes, allowing for the natural ebb and flow of the tempo while still allowing the precision that a click track offers in post-production.

Those who seek to plead the case for the "au natural" feeling of recording without the constraint of a click need look no further than Charanga Habanera, and, among many other examples, "Tremenda Atmósfera". No one plays with the tempo more than CH, and this may be the most extreme example on any of their albums. It begins at a moderate 91 beats per minute [audio example 38], and ends even faster than "Hey You Loca" at a blazing fast 115BPM! [audio example 39]. The arrangement starts with just clave and a completely unique and unforgettable synthesizer figure [audio example 40] which pianist Roberto “Cucurucho” Carlos could still be heard playing as a warm up at a recent 2001 Paulito F.G. sound check, several years and several bands after his brief tenure as CH’s pianist in 1997-98. The piano, güiro, campana and kick drum join in for the verses [audio example 41], but the conga and bass are reserved for the choruses, which also feature a rare chance to hear the voice-over vocalizations of Maestro Calzado on this, his first official composition for the group. [audio example 42] At 2:45 [audio example 43] the brass section pays homage to Pello el Afrikán, the originator of the Mozambique style, by quoting his song “María Caracoles Baila Mozambique” [audio example 44]. This mambo fits so perfectly in a Timba context that Azúcar Negra also borrowed it years later for their song "Eres Como Yo". [audio example 45].

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