Over a vamping montuno, the major fourth of a familiar Cuban rumba coro rises, hailing the crowd of art school hipsters and restaurant roues to attention: "!Senores!" Pretty soon, unheard-of horn lines are weaving in and out of strange, new Spanish-sounding harmonies. "Voy pa'alla,"--I'm on my way--calls the sonero, now with the audience in his vest pocket, the sound of salsa's future in our ears.

"It's like if you collected action figures and you happened to find a prototype that didn't have the paint on it yet," says sonero Rei Alvarez at the end of the rough gem.

Richmond's cosmopolitan ears and creative spirit make this old money tobacco town, just two hours and change up the road from the Triangle, the perfect laboratory for Bio Ritmo's latest salsa experiments. The music scene seems symbiotic with the visual arts here--thanks to Virginia Commonwealth University--and graphic design and a love of vintage fashion are no strangers to select members of Bio Ritmo and their entourage.

Alvarez' original cover art adorns the new self-titled album. Released on the band's Locutor label, the CD has been available on the web for a year now, but you will finally be able to buy it in stores nationwide starting this month. Eight original tracks in Spanish have all the Nuyorican soul you could ask for, and not a single shallow lyric or empty rhyme. The rhythm section (timbales, congas, piano and bass) is innovative as well as killer. Seven of the eight are uptempo, and if your magnetic fields happen to be in Puerto Rico, there's one bolero--not a smarmy love song, mind you, but a soul-baring trip to the dark side of creativity.

The national CD-release party for Bio Ritmo is March 29 at S.O.B.'s in New York City. The Ritmo then heads to Durham to make their first-ever appearance at George's Garage on April 3.

Sylvia Pfeifenberger