Exotico

The most fascinating aspect of listening to Lara & Reyes' aptly titled exotico comes when you isolate either of the acoustic guitar tandem's individual performances on the left or right speaker. Each creates his own voice and character and engages in a fruitful, percussive exchange with the other. But their Strunz & Farah-like chemistry is only part of the charm of their third and best release. Not only do they enhance their zesty compositions and arrangements with a greater variety of Latin-based musical styles, they also reach a deeper emotional terrain (and don't hurt their pop accessibility) by texturing their trademark guitar-bass-percussion approach with outside instruments like sax, flute, violin, and most impressively, Mark Rubinstein's keyboards on the carnival atmosphere of "Brazil." Yet, even though they've invited more friends to the fiesta and engage in some very entertaining outside conversations, Lara & Reyes never lose sight of who's hosting the gig. An inspiring, and, yes, beautifully exotic, evolution for world beat's newest darlings.