Ocote Soul Sounds

Like an Afro-Latin comet, Martin Perna and Adrian Quesada have been slowly journeying back to Earth with each successive release. They've always kept their structures in the four-minute range, but on Taurus have scaled back their woozy delay fixation. As a result, this album finds OSS sounding like Quesada's sister group, Brownout. "Primavera" is the first of many instrumental pop tunes. "Pirata" is another, taking a page or two out of the Budos Band's Ethio playbook. "Temblor" reuses the multiple flute lead, which has played a role on each of their albums. "STTP" is a full-on Afrobeat opus in English that suffers from banal lyrics delivered by voices never meant to be lead singers. There are still lots of hazy grooves and it would be unfair to call this boring when so many solid, funky grooves, whirling mixes and creative horn arrangements are on display. But Ocote have found their sound and despite a few new wrinkles are refining, not redefining. It's best to listen to individual tracks rather than the entire album at once.