What a difference a few years makes! Mexico's most important electronic pop band sounds more Depeche Mode than Depeche Mode! Moenia has created a harmonious, modern album on Le Modular while Depeche More has taken a step back with the unremarkable Exciter.

Maybe we're finally starting to realize that the definition of "Latin" music is more complex than we gringos assumed. How do you put ska, rock, electronic, salsa, pop all under one umbrella? Artists and bands such as Shakira, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Mana, Ozomatli, Gustavo Cerati are making inroads that are not all heading in the same direction musically. Mexico’s Moenia is another such group that’s a diamond in the rough so to speak. Moenia sounds good but needs to forge a stronger identity. They’ve got the voice and the attitude already. This is a very , "If you love Depeche Mode, OMD, and Erasure, then you’ll love Moenia!!!" album.

By combining vibrant Norteño music from northern Mexico with more modern electronic sounds, the musicians of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective spearhead a new movement with this hypnotic album. At the same time, the project put their city on the map as an electronic pole on the same level as London, Paris and Chicago.

Eliades Ochoa seems like the lone cowboy of the Buena Vista Social Club. Photographer Anton Corbjin captured that quality for the cd cover. He has been annointed as the keeper of Cuban guajira music, the godfather of Guajira & Roll, if you will. On his first U.S. release, he covers 15 songs of different periods in Cuban musical history.

What better way to conjure up images of East L.A. Pachuco boogie circa 1950: Zoot suits, crooners and lovely Latinas, than listening to bonafide music of the era? With the resurgence of 50's music and culture in Southern California, their music is ripe for the picking.