Just as producer
Bill Laswell and percussion master
Zakir Hussain's collaborative
Tabla Beat Science project set Indian tabla music into a sprawling electronic soundscape,
Batidos -- the brainchild of producer
Ron Trent and
Groove Collective saxophonist
Jay Rodriguez -- fuses simmering Latin grooves with pulsing house rhythms. The effort isn't entirely successful, often sounding like over-produced synth-driven disco (indeed, where house music's origins are), but the parts that do work make the excursion worthwhile. At its best, the music relies on neither the strategies of Latin grooves nor electronica to pull it through. Rather, it works best when it finds a middle ground that doesn't sound particularly like either, such as on the translucent opening number, "Just a Dream," or the brief tribal space of "Cúmbé." Unfortunately, tracks like "Buscamé" border on smooth jazz fusion. As befits that genre, though, those songs melt innocuously into the background. ~ Jesse Jarnow