#3624 Natalia Lafourcade - Musas

3.5/5 pristine production, an effortlessly evocative voice, endless sprightly latin flourishes: it's an utterly pleasant listen. But truly, be warned, it is _squeaky clean, and look out for a clam of a That's Amore cover right in the middle

#2702 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream & Other Delights

Bubbly little Latin ditties, the kind of thing you might find in cowboy-movie Mexico, or backing a Tarantino / Soderbergh mini-montage. It's enjoyable, but man, this is the epitome of melody, written-and-performed, polished squeaky clean until it sounds like library music. There's no vestige of jazz left, no soul left to lose. What's cowboy music good for without that friction? 3/5

#1940 Latin Playboys - Latin Playboys

Man I love an album that won't sit still, that's got its throughline and theme but that just takes you on all these little sideroads through the countryside.

Latin Playboys' self-titled debut has a stagger'long, bluesy backbone, not too far from the band's Los Lobos roots, but then it's off into swampwater drones, ragged horns, fuzzed out textures, a roadtrip through strange lands with details in every detour. It's rich, real, strange, Beta Band songs piped from an ancient dimension though a dusty backyard radio, hunter's moon rising 4.5/5

#1887 Joe Bataan - Riot

Something hot in the air, equatorial heat, the heat of an overstuffed city in summertime. Rhythms shuffle along, this is dead pure, damn near simple, busting over it's levels. Insistent, but stuffy, stifled, a muggy pulse of transplanted simmering heat 3/5

#1860 Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock

A spiraling mix of South American and African styles, injected with hiphop, insistent loping bass, dancable post-disco, infectious chants, and more than one squaredance hoedown breakdown (!) all wrapped up in an underground radio package, complete with banter and callers. This must have been goddamn mindmelting in nineteen eighty fucking two.

The rhythms, the approaches, the irresistible groove, the vibe totally foreign to the West but so humanly relatable, its disorienting - calling it A Trip is about the only way I can do it justice. You might feel like you took a lil bit too much though - by the end I kind of want to get off and get my head straight, but I'll be back when the world gets boring again 3.5/5

#1747 Hugo Montenegro - Montenegro in Italy

Latin-tinged orchestral trifle, romantic and sprightly in broad strokes. It's fine. I don't know why I'm listening to this kind of stuff lately 2.5/5

#1743 Yma Sumac - Mambo!

The usual exotica stuff, those bubbling beats and extra flourishes, plus:
 - searing blasts of horns, coming in bright enough to make you squint
 - Yma's bonkers operatic howling, piping voice. I mean full on range, swinging from Louis Armstrong growls to some beep boop Fifth Element opera shit on a dime

That voice is a thing to behold, and an interesting curiosity, but pretty goddamn unpleasant to listen to. Same goes for the album  2.5/5

#1205 La Santa Ceclilia - Someday New

Vocal-driven latin rock with a bit of bounce and a bit of sway, croonin along real pleasant-like. Marisol's voice is nice enough, she's got pipes and nuance both, and tracks like Ven A Mis Brazos have a wiry energy, while Someday, Someday New gets mileage out of big nasty New Orleans horn rips and poofy organs pulses. A small, energetic, poppy little pleasure with just enough psychedelic edge to keep it interesting 3.5/5