If you ask me, or anyone else, what the best Putumayo comp is, most folk would agree it's their 2001 Arabic Groove, which cruised along the North African coast as effortlessly as Michael Jackson moonwalking backwards. And it's backwards we go to recapture that mood with this new effort. Ali Slimani is back, as a good luck talisman, with a similar sound -- "Lirah remix" -- to that which kicked off the earlier entry. But this disc is less intense. (Well, we have all aged at least a decade since then.) Jalal el Hamdaoui from Morocco kicks off with the famous snake-charmer melody by Borodin, best known as "Stranger in Paradise" from the musical Kismet. But he just repeats the head riff so it doesn't evolve (to "Somewhere in space, I hang suspended..."); instead it repeats and fades and we are into a tortured, moody piece (also Moroccan): "Saab Alyia" from Samira Saeid. Ahmed Soultan's "Itim" could be considered soul music (or whatever nueva name there is for that genre). Choubène (i.e., "Young people") is back on the Med with a Rai number that has a dose of funk in the bass and drums while the synth plays homage to Gap band (there seems to be a kora on here, but it might be a sample). Zein al-Jundi from Syria (now safely stowed in Texas) has gypsy kings flamenco guitar, parisian cafe accordeon and a whole range of other influences saying, "Get me outta Basra!" If you crave that disco bomp-badomp from the first Arabic Groove it comes back for the big finish with Cheb Amar's "Lala Torkia." As usual with the 'Mayo label this CD is barely over half an hour. Not long enough to start to bug you, but enough to engage you and make you look for more.