Latin Playboys' Dose

Listen to clips from the Latin Playboys at Planet of Sound.

Los Lobos guitarist/vocalist David Hidalgo and drummer Louie Pérez team up with producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake for one of the most original albums in months. It's a muddy batch of poly-rhythms, white noise, and car horns. The production of Dose is deliberately distant and lo-fi, giving Hidalgo's soulful, disturbing vocals a more intimate feel. When he sings about an ex-love on "Cuca's Blues" over a churning rhythmic collage of finger snaps and castanets, it feels like we're in the red car right next to him--an unsettling effect heightened by the chattering, trebly guitar that sounds like a caffeinated version of the clavinet from Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." "Mustard" follows suit, with a stuttering rubber-band guitar arpeggio and squealing N'awlins fiddle providing color in front of a disquieting pulse and lyrics like, "So the big ole boy looks like he had enough/ Still could use a little mustard."

Dose also features some truly bizarre instrumental snippets that link the storylines of urban decay and lost worlds. "Ironsides" is a warped blues from some juke joint on the Texas-Mexico border. In "Nubian Princess," Bernie Worrell-like keyboards meet computer blips, with the engine still running. And then there's "Tormenta Blvd.," a galloping, fuzzy 12-bar blues tormented in the meat grinder.

Dose's most abrasive track--and that's saying a lot--is "Locoman," a crazy dude "Who tried to cut the world in two/ Wrapped it up in chicken wire/ And tried to drag it home to you." It's a love song, despite a kitchen sink arrangement that might fit better on a Tricky album: distorted guitars, hammer percussion, vocals careening off every rhythmic surface. It's a twisted take on, well, ordinary stuff. The 38-second "Toro," the Mexican stomp "Paletero," and the gritty mariachi "Paul Y Fred," close the album with a story about neighborhood characters.

Dose doesn't cohere as well as it could. The two best songs on this collection, "Latin Trip" and "Lemon 'N Ice," perfectly capture what's so exciting and frustrating about it. "Latin Trip" takes an Afro-Cuban rhythm figure and smothers it in fuzzy piano, guitar, and vibes that would make Cal Tjader scratch his head in confusion. The song's a wild ride, but it's tough to hold on. And then the quietly kinetic "Lemon 'N Ice," with its snakelike guitar lines and claustrophobically funky shuffle, comes out of nowhere--it's the most accessible song on this wild songscape. And as if the quirk quotient on Dose wasn't already high enough, Wendy and Lisa--Prince's sidekicks from Purple Rain, of all people--contribute haunting vocals to both "Latin Trip" and "Lemon 'N Ice." Hey, it's nice work if you can get it. (Atlantic)

--Jason Heller

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