Kobol is the duo of Ignacio Chávez (guitars and keyboards) and Argel Cota (drums, Octopad) from Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Their second CD is a mixture of their originals and remixes.

1. State Shirt "Straw Men (Kobol remix)"
2. Submarino
3. Pepito "The Dogs (Kobol remix)"
4. Murcof "Urano (Kobol remix)"
5. Blue Like You (feat. Emma Ejwertz)
6. Valenciana (feat. Ximena Sariñana)
7. Paragon
8. 5PM (feat. Jazz De Mar)
9. Kampion "Dreamy Snapshot (Kobol remix)"
10. Tanque

"Submarino" is an interesting mixture of orchestral emulation and electronic effects with a bit of guitar. "Paragon" features more acoustic guitar and quiet keyboard surrounded by bleeps and beats. "Tanque", the tenth and last track, is a bit funky, a bit skewed by offbeat percussion, and a bit spacey with keyboard effects.

There are also three vocal tracks. "Blue Like You" with Emma Ejwertz, "Valenciana" with Ximena Sariñana, and "5PM" with Jazz De Mar. The first two are beautiful, straight ahead jazz/lounge torch songs. "5PM" is also nice but unusually produced, with a sparse acoustic piano out front and the vocals farther down in the mix.

As for the remixes: State Shirt is an electronica indie singer/songwriter. Kobol's remix of his "Straw Men" makes it more subtle, with softer and more rounded beats. The remix of Pepito's "The Dogs" is more radical, changing the minimalist, introspective original into a lounge/dance number. Both remixes enhance the originals.

The remix of "Urano" by Murcof is also an improvement, putting some life into the ten-minute ambience of the original. But at over six minutes, this still ponderous track slows down the rest of the CD.

There are a lot of different things here, all imaginatively done. Their website says that Kobol has "cleaned up the glitch" on this CD. I think a few glitches are still here, and that’s part of what makes this well done CD worth listening to.

~ Dave Howell

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