The brooding spirit of Los Lobos' last album, Kiko, hovers over this side project by Lobos' David Hidalgo and Louie Perez and their coconspirators, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. Recorded almost entirely on a four-track tape machine, 14 songs were finished in as many days. The result is an expansive meld of R&B, Tex Mex, rock, soul and blues that is cinematic in scope.

The tunes were composed in true collaborative fashion: Hidalgo's musical sketches were passed to Perez, who added lyrics and rhythms. Froom and Blake (who served as producer and engineer, respectively, for Kiko) further colored the proceedings with samples and other instrumentation. Rough edges give the music a live feel.

The album opens with "Viva la Roza," in which sampled horns bleat, then slip and disappear into a bassy mix of dense rhythms, voices, guitars and strings. In its hypnotic, syncopated complexity, the song resembles My Life in the Bush of Ghosts – as imagined by Astor Piazzolla.

The next track, "Ten Believers," is announced by a jarring rhythm, which is then joined by a fractured organ and offkilter bass line; Hidalgo's guitar winds its way in, trying to establish a melody. When he begins to sing, the jaggedness disappears, and the tune begins to shift; within seconds, the primitive rhythm track has been transformed into a lush, exotic pop tune. Each selection is full of surprises and becomes part of a web that reveals much about the creative process.

In some ways Latin Playboys is reminiscent of Dylan and the Band's Basement Tapes because it showcases new musical ideas as possibilities ("mistakes" don't get edited out). And because of the technical limitations, the music is fresh and open, unconcerned with the refinement of aesthetic closure. Latin Playboys is a raw jewel of pure groove. (RS 684)

THOM JUREK