Garcia’s balancing act works

Sergent Garcia

“La Semilla Escondida” (Shakti/Virgin)

*** 1/2

This wiry Parisian of Spanish descent is part of the French connection to Latin music that includes alt-rocker Manu Chao and salsa/rap trio Orishas. Garcia’s unique contribution is a concoction he calls salsamuffin, a Caribbean gumbo of salsa, reggae, hip-hop ska and ragga.

It’s taken the singer-composer (nicknamed for Zorro’s fictional adversary) three albums to get the recipe just right. He did it by focusing on his two most potent ingredients, the rhythms of Cuba and Jamaica.

Concentrating on these two wellsprings avoids the scattershot feel of his previous work. This album, whose title means “the Hidden Seed,” sustains a taut, potent drive through 14 tracks with varied rhythms but intertwined themes.

Garcia’s music is peppered with progressive political messages that can be banal at times but sound urgent in Garcia’s impassioned style. In “Mi Ultima Voluntad (Tonite),” he turns to his lover for relief from fears of social apocalypse, a paranoid plea couched in a catchy reggae beat.

The album was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, and Santiago, Cuba, much closer to Haiti than Havana. On Cuban numbers, such as the tasty “El Regreso” (The Return), Garcia strikes a fresh balance between the sweet provincial son/danzon and the edgy urban rap that has overly dominated modern Cuban music.

Striking artful balances is what makes this album work. Fluid balances among three languages, Spanish, French and English. And elegant balances of style and substance -- electronic yet earthy, philosophical yet fun, sophisticated yet accessible.

Garcia and his group Locos del Barrio strike a thematic balance with the final two tracks. “Poetas” is an angry indictment of greed, ambition and corrupt power, and “Viva La Felicidad” (Long Live Joy) offers a flute- andviolin-laced affirmation of the future.

Including the future of this music.

Score one for the home team

Mezklah

“SpiderMonkey” (Mayequa Music)

***

This is one of those homemade L.A. Latin rock CDs you play fully expecting to be disappointed, the norm for bands in the languishing local scene. The difference with “SpiderMonkey” is you can’t take this critter off.

With its debut CD, the Chicano duo of singer-songwriter Angel Garcia and guitarist Greg Hernandez suddenly emerges as one of L.A.’s most powerful and promising alt-Latino bands. Their work is original, imaginative and occasionally gripping.

The two L.A.-born musicians, both in their early 30s, look as if they’ve been cryogenically preserved in a desert cave since Jim Morrison died. But while their music is tinged with psychedelic echoes and mystical references to peyote, the sound is a contemporary mix (mezcla) of trip-hop, reggae, salsa, drum-and-bass, jungle and funk.

Garcia’s trippy, poetic lyrics show real talent. He tickles his radical politics and intense passions with clever Castilian wordplay, demonstrating an uncommon command of the language. In “Quiero Cocido” (I Want Beef Stew), a celebration of the power of diversity, he combines names of Latino foods in culinary alliterations over a skittish drum beat.

Garcia also has one of the most versatile, affecting voices in Latin rock, rising from a primal growl to ethereal, trembling falsettos. Tender and tormented, his vocals are a polished gem in this raw, embryonic but powerful style they call “tribal electronica.” Recorded at producer Eric Alatan’s Silver Lake studio, it’s available at www.mezklah.com.

Serving up fun but forgettable pop

Paulina Rubio

“Pau-Latina” (Universal Music Latino)

**

After a fizzled crossover attempt with 2002’s English-language “Border Girl,” the Mexican singer returns to inflict her fluffy, shamelessly commercial pop on the Spanish-speaking world. This is the Paulina we’ve always known, as fun but forgettable as her tenure in the teeny-bopper group Timbiriche. As the title suggests, she’s back to being Latina, making a musical licuado (smoothie) of sounds that were popular while she was away, everything from Colombian accordion, Brazilian batucada, flamenco guitar and ranchera hip-hop. But it’s a counterfeit fusion, as phony as her attempts at pseudo-hip Spanglish, as in “Number One-a” rhymes with “Juana.” Paulina, puh-leeze!

Travel guides for a musical journey

Various artists

“Mexico and Mariachis” (Milan)

***

Various artists

“The Rough Guide to the Music of Mexico” (World Music Network)

***

These two collections offer an eye-opening view of the state of modern Mexican music on both sides of the border. And it’s not your grandparents’ Mexico anymore.

“Mexico and Mariachis” is subtitled “Music From and Inspired by Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi Trilogy.” This is not a straight soundtrack but a collection of songs selected by the famed director and composer himself, with a companion DVD. Rodriguez writes revealing notes on each track, some of which were used in the movies (the trilogy includes “El Mariachi,” “Desperado,” and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”), some of which never made it, and some of which were recorded for this album. The music is offbeat and sometimes over the top, like his campy films. But it’s a fun ride from the man who made mariachi hip.

The 20-track “Rough Guide” ranges from traditional banda and mariachi to cuts by alt-Latino band Cafe Tacuba and cabaret singer Astrid Hadad. As expected, these creators of travel guides give us a sweeping, surprising and nicely documented package. An exciting musical journey.