Temporal
With Mediterranean instruments like theoud,derbukaandney, Radio Tarifa collapses recognizably Arabic sounds with flamenco rhythms, playing with a flair reminiscent of a traditional Balkan wedding band. (The Spanish ensemble also tackles a 16th-century Sephardic tune and a 12th-century French procession.) Central to Radio Tarifa's charm is the rough-edged voice of Benjamin Escoriza, whose throaty elocution makes his Spanish a terrific blur of clarity and wavering timbre. Aside from the Mediterranean percussion--supplied mainly by the differently-pitched hand drums--Radio Tarifa also dots its grooves with Afro-Cuban inflected bongos and an electric bass, making this global concatenation particularly delightful. --Andrew Bartlett