Various Artists, 'Si, Para, Usted Vol. 2: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba'

According to the latest evidence, the embargo on foreign goods entering Communist Cuba was a dismal failure. This compilation, the second put together by Dan Zacks and the Waxing Deep record label, is another dossier documenting the secret infiltration of Western goods into the country, in the form of American-style guitar riffs, synth cadences, and hit American singles drifting south from Miami radio stations, and into the routines of the numerous Cuban rock bands encouraged (and often stifled) by Castro’s government. Sometimes, the influences are immediately evident, as with Orquesta Cubana De Música Moderna’s cover of the Ides of March’s funky American hit “Vehicle.’’ Mostly, there are bits of American music interspersed amidst the Cuban rhythms: fuzzed-out guitar solos on Los Llamas’ “Siboney,’’ the homegrown disco sheen of Los Brito’s “El 4-5-6,’’ the Marxist-Leninist P-Funk of Grupo FA5’s “El Siglo de Libertad.’’ But the pieces, unfamiliar to their recipients, are assembled haphazardly, like a ’58 Chevy with all Ford parts. The result is distinctly Cuban funk and rock, simultaneously familiar and utterly strange to American ears. (Out now)

SAUL AUSTERLITZ