Manolito Simonet had definitely entered the group at this point. The date is listed, down to the day, for Caras extrañas in the Cuban Gold liner notes.

Puros como el son cubano
rec: 12-1986 rel: 1987
Areíto LD-4417

click here for our timba.com review with audio samples

Cuban Gold 5, which contains tracks 2 and 5, gives us the exact recordings date. Thanks to Barry Cox from New York for sending us the number and photo

approx. 1990 - El agua coge su nivel
Siboney LD-513

Thanks to Gabriel Wilder of Yemayá's Verse for tracking down this cover which is profoundly interesting because it shows the full personnel. We can now identify the members of Manolito y su Trabuco who began with Los Maravillas (Osiris Martínez, Evelio Ramos, Nicolás Gastón, Eduardo Mora, etc.).

El agua coge su nivel was reissued on CD on the Salsa Center label.

Salsa Center (CD reissue)

This is out of print but used copies can sometimes be found. There's another, similar-looking release on the same label that contains the 8 tracks as Areíto LD-3856 shown above. Beware that jewel case shows two additional tracks that aren't actually on the CD.