Los Lobos have entered the studio with legendary producer John Leckie to record their eleventh studio album and their first recording of new material since 1999's This Time. The group plans to release the record in early-2002, to coincide with their twenty-fifth anniversary. The past year has found the group looking backwards with the reissue of Del Este de Los Angeles, their 1977 debut recording of traditional material and their second retrospective, El Cancionero: Mas y Mas, a four-disc compilation that spanned their career.

The new album will be the group's first recording without the production team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake after more than a decade that spanned four albums. With Leckie in the fold, the group have tapped a producer with a sterling resume. Leckie did engineering work on John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass as well as production for XTC, Radiohead and numerous others. "When I got the call asking me if I wanted to work with Lobos I fell off my chair," Leckie said. "They're very respected in the U.K. amongst people with taste. They're one of the best bands I could work with."

"I think we were ready for something different," Steve Berlin of Los Lobos said. "With [Leckie], we've gone back to the classic artist-producer working relationship."

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 9, 2001)