Mulatos Remix

Pianist, percussionist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Omar Sosa received a Grammy nomination in the Best Latin Jazz Album category for his 2004 release Mulatos. Prominently featuring clarinetist Paquito d'Rivera, Mulatos combined elements of Cuban jazz, French chanson, European folk, and North African music, all mashed up in Sosa's distinctive and good-humored style. The follow-up to that album is this collection of remixes, provided by a cross-section of Europe's best producers and DJs. Paris-based newcomer DJ basephunk contributes an elegantly cool and funky mix of "La Tra" that brings the string bass to the fore while adding tweaked and eerie vocal manipulations; Steve Arguelles' "Paralelo (Plush Vocal Mix)" is slow, almost contemplative, with lushly layered polyrhythms; Marque Gilmore's mix of "Nuevo Flow" is rhythmically steady and sweetly dubwise, without any of the radical sonic interruptions that are usually associated with dub, but which would have interrupted the track's gentle continuity — but then, of course, the frenetic junglism kicks in and takes everything up a good notch or two. The junglist massive will be even more taken by Gilmore's brilliant mix of "Iyawo," which closes the album. Highly recommended.