Album: Ojos de Brujo <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Techar&iacute;, DIQUELA/[PIAS]

There's plenty to enjoy on this follow-up to the world music stars' 2004 hit Bari - sometimes, rather too much. With its frantic, polyrhythmic mix of flamenco guitar, percussion, scratching, horns and explosive vocal arrangement, album opener "Color", for instance, is too lively by half, rapidly degenerating into the kind of overcooked jazz-funk stew that regards showboating technique over simple danceability. Things mercifully soon settle down into a more approachable flamenco-pop format on "Sultanas de Merkaíllo", which resembles the Gipsy Kings with female vocals, and the euphoric "Todo Tiende", with Asian Dub Foundation's Prithpal Rajput on dhol. Cuban pianist Robert Carcasses adds lovely rumba piano to "No Somos Máquinas", flamenco virtuoso Pepe Habichuela dazzles when accompanied by Arabic drone stylings on "Nana", and Nitin Sawhney prompts a sort of Indo-Catalan bhangra-flamenco crossover on "Feedback" - though the most vital player here is probably Maxwell Wright, whose scat-singing and mouth-percussion is the most crucial element in turning their flamenco-rock into something more contemporary.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Nana', 'No Somos Máquinas', 'El Confort No Reconforta'