Radio Zumbido: Los Ultimos Dias del AM

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald Rating * * * * )

From the scratch'n'grind opener this is a different sound than you might expect out of Guatemala City. It's edgy Hispanic trip-hop rock with a dub consciousness, splatterings of electronica, and some traditional sounds (very few however).

The lateral thinker behind it is Juan Carlos Barrios, who has clearly tuned in to Tom Waits' soundtrack work (the surface noise-enhanced Aparicion sounds like Waits has taken Groove Armada in hand, Radio Solola only slightly less so), and he conjures up some brittle narrow-range funk and Latin shuffle tracks.

The melange is meshed together by AM radio static and it all feels part of a slightly disturbing night in a dodgy Central American or Spanish bar, where you know you should leave but the damn place is so attractive and unusual you can't. Odd and oddly appealing.
Label: Palm/Universal