When I first heard Federico Aubele's debut album Gran Hotel Buenos Aires there was no argument to be made, this man, with the help of some lovely Argentinian vocalists produced a special sound, and with his second full-length "Panamericana" I find I'm still in love with the sound. Now that Federico has been living away from his homeland of Argentina for several years, he has, as any musician would invariably do, strengthened the ties to his cultural roots by turning his longing, memories, desires and distant memories into beautiful, beautiful music.

1. La Esquina
2. Maria José
3. En cada Lugar
4. Las Canciones
5. Tan dificil
6. La Orilla
7. Pena
8. Este Momento
9. Corazón
10. En el desierto
11. Lluvia
12. Su Melodia
13. La Mar

Compared to Gran Hotel Buenos Aires you'll immediately hear a matured level of songwriting, while the same warm Latin soul and sounds come through unchanged. If you're not familiar with his sound yet, it's a combination of classical Latin guitar and percussion, with mellow, hip hop influenced beats, dub styled bass and caramel (or if you prefer, dulce de leche) sweet female vocals. The lyrics are, as are the liner notes in each of his albums written completely in Spanish. To graphically illustrate the lands that have inspired the music on Panamericana, you'll find a map on the inside booklet that dots a line up the coasts of South America, the western coasts of Central America, the United States, Canada and up to that remote slice of America called Alaska. These are all the places of memories and inspiration that Federico has drawn from while living in Europe, to write the songs for Panamericana.

Besides the evident guitar and songwriting talents of Aubele (pronounced Au-bell-a), Panamericana draws strength from two other major players; the sweet voice that you hear, which is that of Buenos Aires born and raised Natalia Clavier, and the production skills of Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton, who also co-produced Federico's debut album alongside fellow Thievery Corporation founder Rob Garza. Natalia met up with Aubele while both were living in Spain and the closeness really worked well. With his previous album, Federico's partnership with his singers was more remote, as they were all located in Argentina.

You can clearly hear the "Thievery sound", though it's nowhere near a rip-off, it's just more of an influence. While Thievery Corporation typically root their sound in dub and reggae styles, Federico is strongly rooted in South American sounds, though he does borrow bits of dub and reggae from the Carribean. Early on, Federico's inspiration to make music came from listening to the work of Argentine tango legend Astor Piazzolla, which he remarked as perfectly capturing the soul of Buenos Aires.

You really can't go wrong picking up anything by Federico Aubele. Highly recommended in the Latin rooted downtempo category. Easily one of my favorite albums for 2007 and beyond.

On a side note, keep your ears up for Natalia Clavier's solo work coming out some time on ESL Music. She's the labels first solo female signing, so you know that much like Federico's music, it's going to hit your heart and soul dead center.

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