Calexico ‘The Black Heart EP’ (City Slang) Released 12/04/04

Genre defying desperados emerging from the Tucson badlands, like Lambchop Calexico take the alt country template before whisking it away into all manner of weird and wonderful places.

Normally remix EP’s are enough to send this reviewer running for cover in the face of overly earnest hatchet jobs that strip away everything that made the track good in the first place.  Jazzanova ‘White Soul Dub’ take on the title track, however, is a string laden cinematic treat that sounds like The Coral, Massive Attack and Ernio Morricone making out.  It shouldn’t work, but it does, very much like ‘Attack El Robot! Attack’ re-worked by Jorg Fuller, the sound of Beck wrestling the strokey chinned ‘jazz dance’ template back from Compost Records.

Showing they are right at the forefront of the current alt-country/latin movement, the ‘Black Heart EP’ is completely true to spirit.