If ever there was a record that truly deserved the ‘world beat’ label then this is it. Latin America and the Middle East collide on this Spanish guitar driven jazz medley

A bizarre display of Brazilian carnival fervour brought to London’s Barbican

Once again the vaults of Fania have been plundered by the remixes that know their Fanias from their elbows to produce another dance floor friendly summer hot one.

With the UK release of Céu the spate of young Brazilians trying to take their country’s musical traditions and morph them into something new continues. While most fall far short of the music they cite as inspirations, Céu clearly has something special to offer

Despite its opening bars sounding like the backing to a black and white TV advert Sabrina Malheiros’ New Morning is actually rather pleasant.

Don’t let the predicable cover of beautiful girl on a beach and glorious sunset put you off getting this new album from Far Out Recordings; the best yet from Sabrina Malheiros as you wake up to her new morning

Formed in a Rio de Janeiro hippy refuge in 1999, Ponto de Equilíbrio blend traditional aspects of roots reggae with musical flavours from across Brazil into an utterly distinctive and highly refreshing individual sound

While the host nation to this gig was tuned into a football match, the mainly Latin audience danced, roared and sang their way through an exceptional evening of music

Students at the FLY academy will immediately recognise Jackson Conti as the combined talents of Otis Jackson, Jr (aka Madlib) and Ivan (Mamão) Conti (he of Azymuth); lets face it, that makes Sujinho indispensible in itself.

It is hard to go wrong with an album that has Paulinho da Viola, Moreno Veloso and Zeca Pagodinho on board — with Marisa Monte’s backing it is well-nigh impossible

A lot of rubbish is said and written about ‘real hip hop’ but it doesn’t get much realer than Os Racionais MCs. Hailing from Sāo Paulo’s slums they were earlier pioneers of rap Brasileiro; since their very conception, controversy has never been far away and their recent London show was no different

Returning to the city that once served as his home, Gilberto Gil was introduced as the man who has ‘provided the soundtrack to five decades of Brazilian life’. Twenty-two songs later we realised just how true that was

Whistling and cool have never been the best of bedfellows. At worst there’s Roger Whitaker (ask your grandparents) and at best, Peter Bjorn & John’s ‘Young Folks’? Paul Bryan’s title track falls somewhere between the two of these so be prepared for a tough start to this one

Born and raised in Argentina, Natalia Clavier lived and breathed all sorts of music from an early age and she’s developed into a woman with a voice that sounds like Nectar itself

All of a sudden, you can hardly move for huge EPs and this is another one from Camilo Lara aka Mexican Institute Of Sound; and just for a change, he gets the remix treatment this time.

The gift of the samba is an answer to a calling from the gods of rhythm. Or to put it another way, The Ipanemas are at it again with their new album on Far Out Recordings.

From its graphic comic, Lichtensteinesque, cover through all of its 15 tracks Viagem is a piece of pure history, and one that everyone should own

“Musicians don’t know how to classify their own music and leave this dubious task to marketing managers and journalists. Musicians want to make music not worry about which bin the record will be placed. So let the dogs bark while the caravan dances.”

Sparo may have his head in the clouds but the arrival of ‘The Falling’ (released on 3 Bar Fire) is just the thing to turn up the heat

You know when you’ve been Tangoed . . . Chances are that while you probably haven’t heard of the Bajofondo Tango Club you’ll almost certainly have heard their music. As well as providing the backing for a couple of adverts, members of the electronic tango collective from Buenas Aires has been involved in the soundtracks for Babel, Brokeback Mountain and The Motorcycle Diaries

An album inspired by a motorway is probably not the most exciting prospect. The Via Pan-Americana however is no ordinary highway; it runs from Alaska to Cape Horn in Argentina and Federico Aubele has attempted to capture some of the musical traditions from the countries it dissects

Paêbirú is probably the strangest album to have landed on my desk, ever. If it didn’t have the Mr Bongo logo stamped all over its cover I doubt I would have got past track two

When it comes to handing out compliments, Arthur Verocai deservedly gets some big ones. Find out why on this new album

The latest in a long a long line of projects from LeLeo — Maravilhas sees the one-man musical institution team up some of his rather talented friends and play some dusty sounding laid-back Brazilian grooves

The debut album from the worldly Mexican songstress, Valentina Gonzalez, is an intriguing journey of vocal exploration with Valentina’s evocative voice at its core

Los Mono are producing some of the most soulful, eclectic music coming out of South America - and they’re worth the hype.

Mo’ Horizons have been there or thereabouts in musical circles for the last eight years. Now it’s time for them to break through with their fourth LP, on their own imprint Agogo.

To put it simply Sound Affects: Brazil is a good idea for a good cause and contains some mighty fine music as well

Slick bossa beats combine with the voices of not one but two girls from Ipanema in this celebration of 70s funk

A certain record store in London’s Berwick St. environs has had the cover of the first edition of Percussion Madness in their shop window for over a year now. Now if you haven’t got the message yet, Revisited just reinforces the fact that you need both albums in your collection

Delicate, intelligent jazz with a touch of Brazil from the guitarist and composer Marcus Pereira

Gale force winds of funk and heavy bossa nova rain turn up with this killer from the label whose destiny is to supply our ears with the pride of Brazil

Charlie Gillett mixes the well-known with underground discoveries, crosses continents, sifts thousands of songs, balances the sexes and blends contemporary and traditional on this year’s crop

Before the Sound Affects: Brazil album comes out later this year, this 12” gets us in a d’n’b groove

Carnaval Só Ano que Vem is the first recording by eighteen-piece Orquestra Imperial since they appeared as a live collective some five years ago, electrifying audiences from the Brazilian carnavals to the London Barbican. Brazil’s neo-samba super group offer a fresh retrospective on the Big Band Gafieira sound, transporting Rio’s 1950’s dancehalls to the modern age. The outcome is an album of infectious, melodic samba, which has the carnaval spirit at its heart, while at the same time acting as a cornerstone for the new wave of Brazilian reinvention

It might be 30 years since the release of Exodus but if there was any further proof that reggae is now the heart beat of the world, here’s AfroReggae from the favelas of Rio to put forward their gospel

This CD is one of three new compilations in a ‘Carnaval’ series released on a new label Resiste this week at a bargain price. Definitely worth another look.

Out of Colombia, LA’s Palenke Soultribe blend traditional music with electronic beats to match the tropics and heaven

Groovy, baby, groovy.

The latest from Vampi Soul is “an anthology of Mexico’s No. 1 instrumental combo” and so it’s all about the Latin soul

Now I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, or a CD for that matter, but it’s hard not to get excited by an album that boasts a bikini-clad lady leading a sombrero-wearing donkey down the road on its cover

Crookers have taken bonkers to the next level with their brilliant 12” of electrified baile funk mundial.

Putumayo World continues its exploration of the Latin sound with its début jazz release. It opts for the obvious rather than the surprising (Ray Barretto, Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri all appear) but provides a good introduction to the world of Latin jazz

With 32 tracks squeezed into just over 57 minutes ‘Brazilian Bits ‘N Pieces’ acts as a crash course in contemporary Brazilian music and, according to its promoters at least, is the world’s first officially licensed all-Brazilian cut-and-paste mix

It has been almost a month since Bebel Gilberto performed live at the Roundhouse and I still can’t make up my mind; brave artist, lacklustre performer or spoilt diva…

You may recognise Chris Frank and Brazilian vocalist Nina Miranda from Da Lata (Prá Manhã and the brilliant ‘Serious’), Smoke City (‘Underwater Love’) and Chris & Nina’s ‘Mash Banana’ on Especial Records. Well you can forget most of that, as Zeep takes on a far more relaxed and organic form

Former pianist of the Astor Piazzolla Quintet, Pablo Ziegler continues to combine his love and talent for tango with the traditional aspects of jazz

In Cuba they have a stew called ‘agiaco’ into which anything can be incorporated, Revolucion is the musical equivalent. It mixes son Cubano, jazz, funk, Latin dance and reggae, it has tracks in both French and Spanish and owes as much to New York as Cuba.

As these lot are poking their heads above the parapet in the press this week, it’s a good time to check out why folks ain’t getting tired of “I’m tired of being sexy”.

The album title made me think of the early James Bond score music - all show and style but with no real substance if taken out of context from the on-screen action

The prolific compiler and taste-maker Gilles Peterson delivers his first Latin compilation after digging through a few hundred Fania albums

Fania’s re-issue campaign continues with this homage to the work of Ray Barretto, who first made a name for himself in New York’s Latino barrios and, as the sleeve notes put it, “is one of the true originals of New York Latin Music.”

There is something about Brazilian music that makes it sound better in the sunshine and Clara Moreno’s Meu Samba Torto is no different.

This is going to blow Funk Mundial minds as two of London’s biggest DJs reinvent worldwide baile funk

Bossa Nova Delicado is not traditional Brazilian music nor does it attempt to be; it’s light, breezy Bossa, erring on the jazz side rather than the samba vibe

Nova bossa with an international tinge

As Europe’s indie kids have taken Brazil’s CSS to their collective hearts, it’s only a matter of time before they get into the baile funk b-boy, Edu K

Wátina is where the ancient and modern worlds meet, where African rhythms blend effortlessly with Latin flavours. It is full of loping rhythms (familiar yet new), warm, powerful voices and perfectly blended percussion

Colombia may be famous for many things but among lovers of big, fast bold Latin sounds, it is above all the music that shines through

Fresh, contemporary, avant-garde, soulful and bossa-based — not an impossible (but admittedly unlikely) combination as this album proves

Straight from Montevideo, Uruguay comes this modern fusion of Latin American flavours (spoken in Spanish and Portuguese), with the melodic wit of OutKast and the smoky vocals of Paolo Nutini but which also speaks with the voice of the Spanish underground, layering Casio keyboard-esque melodies and flamenco beats.

First there was mambo, pachanga and cha cha cha. With the arrival of the 1960s, influenced by James Brown and Marvin Gaye, boogaloo burst forth.

Bagunca charters the discography of British-based Brazilian jazz dance band, Sirius B. Marvellous relentless energy and sumptuous grooves delight the listener, charging feet and hips

This is the incredible, seminal debut album from Azymuth that sounds nothing like it was recorded in 1975 and if the re-mastering doesn’t do it for you, there’s a bonus CD of newly commissioned remixes and re-edits by all your favourites

A Fania sampler offering a bite-size chunk of the history of salsa

Has Brazil’s North-East finally caught up with Rio and São Paulo? This showcase of Pernambucan talent would suggest that it has…

If the origins of the artists on Putumayo’s A New Groove are diverse, the connecting theme is laid-back jazz fuelled songwriting - lounge jazz for a new generation

This album was originally called ‘Tocando Sentido Suando’ but I tend to agree with those wise samba heads at Far Out Recordings, Magica is an apt title.

Salsa is and was a controversial term for music that escaped between the edges of definition. It wasn’t simply Puerto Rican, Cuban, commercial, from New York, black etc and yet it wasn’t possible without all of these things

Diego Figueiredo is a Brazilian guitarist and a half. His fingers fly improbably about the fretboard whether his subject is classical or jazz all delivered with unmistakable Brazilian style and influence.

Manifest Tone Vol.1 generates images and feelings that originated in Lagos during the 70s but which have been splendidly re-produced in 21st Century New Jersey.

This is third Misch Masch compilation and it’s international DJ Gigolo Hell who takes the controls from Tiefschwarz and Freeform Five.

Not just another Brazilian best of…

Inglaterra is the fifth offering from Alex Wilson and his twelve-piece power Latin band. Although predominately containing traditional salsa beats there are a few pioneering tracks; bringing together more than one long-established musical sound

Putamayo Presents Radio Latino is a collection of 11 upbeat tracks taken from across the Spanish speaking world — a cocktail of contemporary artists at the forefront of the Latin alternative scene in their respective countries, but who have yet to make their mark internationally

Currently on his UK tour promoting, just enough time to check out his pre-Cru album

Argentina continues to re-explore and reinterpret its musical heritage, as a new release follows in the footsteps of Gotan Project to bring the distinctive sound of tango to a beat-hungry global audience.

This album nicely follows on from Sundays Afternoon At Dingwalls. Quality Latin jazz soul and funk all-wrapped up in a Dingwalls feel for today. This band would definitely be a live booking if Dingwalls was still a regular session

Plucked straight out of 60s soul fever this Double CD compilation is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any Aretha Franklin or James Brown fan. Plugged as being ‘El Soul música, made in the USA, para las discotecas españolas’ or rather Soul music, made in the USA for Spanish clubs, this collection does exactly what it says on the tin

Far Out recordings are the place to go if you want cutting edge Brazilian music, and they’ve come up with the goods once again with a sensual marriage of bossa nova and programmed beats (with just a hint of Indian folk) from this new London-based collective.

To celebrate 20 years of recording, World Circuit will be releasing a superb double CD collection on the 16th October

In a world awash with free cover-mount compilations and triple CDs for a tenner, why on earth would you buy Charlie Gillett’s latest round up? Perhaps because you really do get what you pay for…

Ivete Sangalo is the reigning queen of axê music and a superstar back in her native Brazil. She’s the complete package: a fantastic voice, an impressive dancer and, just as importantly, she looks great

Despite a career spanning more than 15 years, Marisa Monte has yet to put a foot wrong. A string of perfectly-formed albums have brought both critical acclaim and international success, establishing her as the foremost MPB artist of her generation

It’s fair to say that we’ve had a happy period of some really excellent compilation CDs lately dedicated to the music of Brazil. Luckily, this one is a very special addition to the school of 2006.

The sound of summer is here again, courtesy of The Kemia Bar at Momo’s, a fresh and charming club in London’s West End that evidently knows how to have a good time. With new takes on old classics and somehow finding a rare middle ground between old and original, your heart will thank you for listening to this.

It’s from Putumayo — expect nothing less than for it to do exactly what it says on the tin.

So into the world of ludicrous titles like ‘glitch-hop’ and ‘scream-o’ steps the new kid on the block - ‘bad ass border beats’. This particular newcomer to the genre market is fronted by ‘Bn Loco’ and the album Echo en Mexico

This special edition features 32 tracks from all the competing countries in the World Cup and it’s a right result.

Nobody can accuse Ed Motta of lacking ambition. Since achieving pop stardom in his native Brazil at age 16, he has forged a unique recording career that has seen him move effortlessly from pure pop to funk to instrumental jazz — and back again. Now, 19 years later, Aystelum sees this prodigiously talented musician releasing his finest work yet.

Moreno + 2 is Domenico Lancellotti, Moreno Veloso and Kassin. Accomplished instrumentalists, respected producers, heirs to a family heritage of Tropicalia and Samba ( Moreno Veloso is the son to Caetano) the plus twos recently embarked upon a musical trilogy with each instalment directed under the leadership of a different member.

This is the fourth album from the former comedienne from Buenos Aires and probably her most accessible yet. Breakthrough time?

After a number of experimental releases, the “salsero Don Quixote” delivers up a nalbum of wholesome, undiluted hot salsa.

It is a good time for Luaku Bop to re-release this CD as we seem to be ready for some Brazilian showmanship.

With the release of their first two albums, Da Lama Ao Caos and Afrociberdélia, Nação Zumbi and lead singer Chico Science revolutionized the Brazilian music scene of the 1990s. Have they still got it?

Gal Costa was a key figure in the Tropicália movement of the late 1960s. Her collaborations with the key songwriters of the era produced a string of essential recordings and Gal became an icon of Brazilian countercultural femininity

Get out your wallcharts, get in the beers, put on your replica kits, it is now less than 50 days until the start of the 2006 World Cup. Hectic picks some essential listening for the beautiful game.

This is a fanatastic album! Described as, “the White Album that Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 never made.”

While the Black Rio bands combined American black power funk and 1970’s Brazil, The Ipanemas mix Afro-bossa and vocal samba of the 1950/60s

The golden age of Black Rio Movement started in 1971 and the biggest band of them all was Banda União Black.

This CD is the latest on Vampi Soul and the first in a set of three releases giving us a closer look at some great Brazilian music.

With the shops filling up with replica Brazil footie shirts in readiness for the World Cup, it’s time for a little piece of Brazil in our ears.

If you have never considered the mandolin an instrument of interest, here’s where you can prove yourself entirely incorrect and make amends with a slice of Brazilian genius.

This slice of light-hearted pop-fuelled acoustica by Alaskan/ Argentinian bi-lingual chillster Johansen and his group the Nada is probably going to be running round your head all summer long.

Inspired post-manguebeat fusions from the Northeast of Brazil

Hailing from Mexico by way of Dublin, Rodrigo y Gabriella are currently touring a sold out circuit around the UK.

Susana Baca came to international prominence doing her own thing and in so doing became synonymous with the Afro-Peruvian sound that is now recognised the world over. Travesias sees her gently exploring other directions in music and indulging herself with some inspired collaborations

In advance of the forthcoming European tour, Far Out Recordings have put Brazil’s top jazz-funkers together with the Brixton-based Spiritual South team for a remix to rival their ‘Jazz Room’ remix.

Whiskey and rum are hardly the best partners in any drinking binge. More like the recipe for a hell of a hangover — but that’s the equivalent of the Salsa Celtica blend; Celtic tunes and a Cuban salsa backbone kick. And when something works so well, as any cocktail connoisseur will understand, you say sod the hangover — that’s for mañana.

When Ingrid Laubrock visited Poole towards the end of last year, the saxophonist exposed her two musical sides to the packed house.

Kicking off with some superb flamenco rolls and running headlong into high octane jazz/flamenco/rock guitar, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s third and eponymous album picks up from where Live in Manchester and Dublin left off, with a live feel that leads the listener to expect well-deserved applause following each number

For a few short years from 1966-70, Latin Soul was the hip, young sound of Spanish Harlem. A riotous collision of Latin rhythms, late-1960s psychedelia and Afro-American R&B, the music was fresh, young and funky

One of Brazil’s greatest voices tackles the back catalogue of one of its greatest songwriters

Forró (pronounced fo-hoe) is the sound of Pernambuco and its capital city Recife. It is a form that is close to the lives of ordinary Brazilians from the North East in its pure state and a resource to be plundered by the mixologists like DJ Dolores. Silvério Pessoa has stuck to the roots and captured the soul of the music on this release

Brazilian female singers signed to Ziriguiboom will automatically be compared with Bebel Gilberto. Especially when Paolista (São Pauloan) Cibelle Cavalli sings in her native tongue, but lets not.

Don’t be misled by the title, this is not the samba of Bahia, it signifies instead a party and throughout the recording it is as if one has been transported to a raucous street party in Pernambuco, Brazil

Fans of the Fort Knox label are going to be a little surprised by their latest release, a jazzy samba with some serious remix action

This is the sound of chaotic resistance to the bland world order of Coldplay and Coca-Cola. Whaa! is a subversive potion of dub featuring the Upsetter himself, Brazilian grooves, African borrowings and funky electronica

Fast and furiously catchy, LDA V The Lunatics blends punk, ska, cumbia, reggaeton, mariachi and revolutionary politics to provide a fresh new soundtrack for the anti-globalista generation

Brazilian music and culture is marked by its diversity, and its ability to incorporate, absorb and subvert new influences, not only in music, but in painting, dance, theatre and photography, and this is something that shines through on the compilation The New Brazilian Music

Cuban son gets a simultaneous revisitation and a fresh kick in the form of Son: Soul of a Nation.

The 15 tracks are taken from four albums covering a period of four years. The ‘classic’ line up of the band was Armando Tirelli (Hammond), Daniel Podestá (Electric Piano), Julio Seoane (bass), Juan Olivera (guitar), Daniel Peña (Saxophone) and Juan Carlos ‘Juca’ Sheppard (drums).

From the unimpeachably perfect label Trama comes another gem after the excellent Rappin’ Hood release. In fact, if you fused the catholic hip hop stylings of Rappin’ Hood with the extra-terrestrial concerns of Sun Ra, this is what you would get

Perfectly chilled and served with a style borne of learning from the best Brazilian musicians, Celso Fonseco comes through with this slice of acoustic pleasantry but ultimately offers nothing new.

An accomplished début from London-based Argentinean singer-songwriter Ana Robles

Compiler Lubi Jovanovich has done it again with a fine selection of surefire floor fillers from the past decade. The emphasis is on salsa dura — the tight-to-the-beat style that dancers everywhere favour — on this well-chosen selection

Funky, conscious and packed to the gills with great samples and famous guests this will be huge in the Lusitanic world — but will it make an impact outside? Who cares, you heard it here and all your friends will be profoundly impressed when they hear your copy booming back at them

Fresh, punky, eclectic and sensual: Célia Mara’s new album has already stormed the World Music Charts Europe. Célia plunders musical forms from far and wide providing a refreshing antidote to the Bebel Gilberto release we are usually treated to at this time of year.

The legendary afro beat drummer Tony Allen has been mentioned a few times on Fly recently as he supported Dizzee Rascal as part of the Africa Remix festival in London and then he went to Paris for a show at the completely renovated 1950s cinema called L'Etage

The Fluid Ounce label has had some brilliant releases over the last couple of years. Dave da Gato's, 'El Diablo', Innocent Sorcerers', 'Believe & See' and 'Shoot The Pianist' by the Inverse Cinematics were all supported by Gilles Peterson on his Worldwide show.

Against all odds, a Colombian band has managed to début with a brilliant album which shows how Jamaican music should be played

Sounds like a dream job: getting paid to spend a month hanging out with young people in cities up and down Latin America from Panama City to Buenos Aires, but things don't turn out quite the way anyone expected...

In the late 90s, a Colombian singer took the French charts by storm, his name was Yuri Buenaventura.

When major artists, writers and musicians start making overtly political art which eclipses their art as a stand-alone piece it shows there is a lot of anger about, and with Empires and Us Steve Skaith launches a tirade against Blair and Bush, US foreign policy in general and continuing violence in the Middle East.

Luaka Bop continue their series of re-releases with Susana Baca's second album, Eco de sombras. Baca's star has been in the ascendant since the album was released in 2000, with acclaim for subsequent releases, a nomination for BBC Radio 3's Awards for World Music and a growing international public eager to hear her music.

If you have never heard the music of Silvio Rodríguez, then please do me a favour: do not buy this album. It's a deeply distorted survey of his output, favouring some of his worst mistakes over some of his most sublime successes. Even when first released in 1991, the selection was questionable. Fifteen years and half a dozen albums later it's an unpardonable offence to the artist's reputation.

He's a hell of a favela fella, this Seu Jorge. As founder of Farofa Carioca, he has been active musically for over a decade but it's acting that has made him a household name through his classic role as Knockout Ned in Cidade de Deus (City of God) and now as the guy who does Bowie covers in Portuguese throughout The Life Aquatic

DJ Dolores, aka Helder Aragão, is like a one-man tropicalismo movement for the 21st century. Ska, drum and bass, traditional emboladas, brega, klezmer and a large dollop of hip hop sensibility are just a few of the pots that DJ Dolores rifles through for his unique sound.

Astor Piazzolla was to the tango what Miles Davis was to the twelve-bar blues, Gustav Mahler to the symphony or Pink Floyd to the three-minute pop song. He took a local form jealously guarded by its Buenos Aires purists and pimped it out to scandalous encounters with jazz, avant-garde classical and electric rock.

At the end of the eighties, David Byrne came out of the closet with his love of Brazilian music. A series of compilations followed, covering Samba, Pagode and Forro but first off was this celebration of Tropicalismo or MPB.

Just over a decade ago, Luaka Bop put out a compilation of Afro-Peruvian songs and in that dark and wonderful firmament, Susana Baca's star shone so strongly that two years later she was in the studio recording her first CD for the international market. An instant classic, Susana Baca's eponymous debut assured her place in the Global Music All Stars.

With Movimento, Brazillian nylon string guitarist Ed Johnson and his band Novo Tempo have made a perfect summer album.

This deserves to be a bestseller all over again. The Mutants -- twisted rebel sambanauts that they were -- scandalised Brazil with their electronic sound in the late 60s. Encouraged by that reaction, they went even further out there and this collection covers their most fertile period before it all went a bit prog man

This lighthearted and playful yet complex offering from nylon guitar wizards Rodrigo y Gabriela is enough to make anyone want to take up the guitar.

This CD from Far Out is a double celebration. Ten years of Far Out and thirty years of Azymuth. That's lots of years to celebrate for Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards and main songwriter), Alex Malheiros (guitars) and Ivan Conti (drums and percussion).

"The Ipanema Set surpasses all the expectations of the listener," claims the sleeve notes of this CD. That's probably pushing it a bit. Unfortunately for Club Brasil, this reviewer's expectations were at a very high level thanks to a couple of factors...

Cards on the table: if a more exciting album comes along this year it will be a miracle. Like a first-time novelist, Cuban conguero Miguel 'Angá' Díaz has poured everything he has and is into his first album as a bandleader, and even the most jaded listener would have to admit that the result is a thing of wonder.

Argentine singer-songwriter Alina Gandini and producer husband Tweety Gonzales are the husband and wife duo that make up Acida, and their debut album La Vida Real features a rare diversity of musical styles and is superbly produced from start to finish. Unfortunately, however, it loses its grip after an excellent start, with too many predictable melodies.

Humo De Tabaco is the dÈbut album of the Alex Cuba Band, fronted by Alexis Puentes, who at age 30 is already a veteran of the Cuban musical melting pot, having navigated his way in various combos through jazz, salsa, mambo, nueva trova and points in between.

The first time I listened to the all-instrumental Tres al Toque, I was entranced by the urbanity and professionalism of the disc. The second time I began to wonder if it was a little too slick.

Subtitled 'From Barrio Beats to Funky Bossa' the sleeve notes emphasise that there is not one single style of Brazilian music as, equally, there is not one particular style of [insert any genre you like]. And do these 14 selected tracks go on to prove the point? Yes they do but perhaps it tries too hard which is a shame.

After selling 300,000 copies of their blockbuster release Music from the Coffee Lands, Putumayo are hoping to pull off the same trick with this cleverly themed collection of tracks from Africa, Latin America and India. And let's not forget the influence of the Swiss and the Belgians when it comes to chocolate -- and so, for good measure -- their influence is felt here too.

Alex Cox, who knows a thing or two about film, puts ¿Quién Sabe? in his top three of Spaghetti Westerns up there with Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch. Shot in Almería at the tail end of the sixties, this is a tail of revolution, deception and redemption through violence. It is also a topical study of the less than altruistic adventures of some US citizens abroad.

The diaspora was out in force on Sunday night for a no-holds-barred set at the Shepherd's Bush Empire from bad boys of Mexican rock Café Tacuba, on their first ever visit to London.

Not so long ago Brazilian hip hop was a novelty, now -- as this album demonstrates -- it is as sophisticated, diverse and god-damn funky as any other hip hop scene you could mention.

Favela Chic is a dangerous cult based in Paris, France. They promote musical miscegenation, drug use and wanton sexual license. Fortunately, they also have missions here in London, England and this CD can bend your brain in remote locations if you can't attend brainwashing camps in either of the chief locations.

Tango like the blues, jazz, fado, son and flamenco is constantly veering between crisis and renaissance. Perhaps one of the unexpected effects of globalisation is that even if a country wants to forget its own music, the rest of the world will keep reminding them of it until sooner or later they decide themselves that it is too good to be locked away.

Subtitled 'A taste of new wave Colombian flavours', Salsa Moderna v.2 does not disappoint anyone with itchy feet for salsa. Culled from the latest tracks coming out of Colombian label Discos Fuentes by Straight No Chaser Latin Don Lubi Javanovic, this is not cerebral salsa.

This release is on a mission to expand understanding of the genre of tango while simultaneously asserting that there is a lot more to Argentinian music than just tango.

Subtitled 'evolution & revolution: the future sounds of Brazil', is it in fact the future sound of London?

The album covers everything from classics by Los Golden Boys and La Sonora Dinamita to modern salsa romántico from the likes of Orquesta Internacional Los Niches