Flaunting a necrophiliac iconography that would make Jerry Garcia proud and riding the wave of the California ska craze, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' 11th album, Fabulosos Calavera ("fabulous skull"), is a landmark record designed to smash borders. Formed 12 years ago in Argentina to reinvent the rude-boy experience with a Latin flava, the Cadillacs have evolved into a high-octane tropical-rock machine. Their chaotic samba-reggae variations and salsa-punk overtures have propelled hits such as "Matador" and "Mal Bicho" to American movie-soundtrack success. And recent collaborations with Debbie Harry and Fishbone (with whom the Cadillacs covered the '60s schlock classic "What's New Pussycat?") have helped make them rock en español's most viable crossover dream.

Spinning together a bizarre collection of eerie tales about Argentine mass murders and dreamlike elegies to dead comrades and lost loves, Fabulosos Calavera's lyrics lurk on the dark side of Buenos Aires. But the album's eclectic dynamism overwhelms its esoteric content – the sledgehammer-of-death metal chords that open "El Carnicero de Giles/Sueño" segue suddenly into a cool-jazz-trio groove; Abraxas-era Santana riffs slam up against hardcore thrash and Herb Alpert horn charts in "El Muerto." The Cadillacs fancy themselves as cowpokes, surfers and political activists: In the Dave Brubeck-retake "Niño Diamante," lead singer Gabriel Fernandez Capello shouts "Indio/Make revolution/Level the barrio/Like a bomb." The band remains true to its roots in a danceable rumba with Rubén Blades, who plays the Latin Neil Young to the Cadillacs' Pearl Jam. For all its exotic trappings, Fabulosos Calavera has enough pure pop juice and smart party music to make anybody listen. (RS 770)

ED MORALES