Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos, The Prosthetic Cubans (Atlantic)
As a founding fixture of New York's Knitting-Factory-based scene, Marc Ribot has participated in a dizzying variety of musical projects, including the jazz of The Lounge Lizards with Arto Lindsay, and gigs with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello. Just a year after similarly eclectic and skilled guitarist Ry Cooder recorded the Buena Vista Social Club album in Cuba, Ribot took a swing at it. With his band The Prosthetic Cubans, he mainly explores the compositions of one of the Son originators, Arsenio Rodriguez, fusing them with his own post-no-wave brand of abrasive jazz skronk and guitar noise, and experiments with Afro-Cuban percussion. Despite the seemingly disparate mix of styles, the results come across quite smooth and mellow. A few songs are danceable, but the rest are meant for hanging out on the beach, watching a Havana sunset with a cigar in one hand and a mixed drink as big as a house in the other.
