Mexico was better represented by the high-powered pachuco mosh of Maldita Vecindad at Antone’s recently than by their fútbol team at the World Cup. Argentina has its own issues. Argentine actress Juana Molina‘s fourth disc, Son (Domino), makes a perfect blind date for Thom Yorke’s The Eraser. Her electro-emotionalism, intimate and whispery, tangles more organic, yet its inner space remains bedroom-borne, particularly the luminous “Micael” and “Elena.” The butterfly flit of Argentine institution Enanitos Verdes, now working their fourth decade, reels in Pescado Original (Universal). One expects more from a trio of so-called Green Dwarves, that ultimately serves up saccharine Latin pop and Eddie & the Cruisers rock: earnest, Eighties, Jersey boardwalk. Make that Long Island, per Billy Joel hoister “Qué Hacemos?” Spanish quartet Dhira takes those elements to unfortunate extremes on their eponymous debut, mixing in hip-, trip-, and world-hop for a meal all too bland. Silencio = Muerte: Red Hot + Latin (Nacional) hasn’t lost any of its dark, chicory bite in the decade since its release; this reissue counts 17 tracks, five of them crisp, new bonuses including the Nortec Collective, Thievery Corporation, and Kinky. Los Lobos, Café Tacuba, and Cibo Matto star, but pairings such as Geggy Tah & King Chango and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs & Fishbone’s “What’s New Pussycat?” raise the dead. Aterciopelados, who morph into Laurie Anderson on Red Hot + Latin, birthed Andrea Echeverri’s solo debut last year and now offer other half Héctor Buitrago’s. Behind the curtain of Conector (Nacional), this cut chemist is a Colombian precursor to Austin’s Charanga Cakewalk, dicing up boudoir beats, indigenous instrumentation, and diva birdcalls (Echeverri and Julieta Venegas). Genius in any tongue. That Balún‘s Something Comes Our Way (Brilliante) out-quenches Conector with diet Tangerine Dream, and a tinsel rain stick testifies to the San Juan, Puerto Rico, trio’s own sound sorcery. Effervescent.
This article appears in August 4 • 2006.
