**1/2 b tribe

SENSUAL SENSUAL

(Atlantic)

Sometimes in this uneven set of 13 tracks, b tribe's music sounds exactly like Enigma's. Sometimes it's just like the Gipsy Kings'. Best are those songs that sound like both: "Háblame," "Desperada," and the title tune. The two styles work, when joined, as a kind of aural costume drama, very exotic indeed, and very uninhibiting. Once you've accepted orchestrations of Enigma-like odor languishing alongside flamenco guitar and Kings-ish vocals, it's no stretch at all to see yourself linking all manner of exotic scenes. For example: waterside sounds and Mexican canción in "Sa trincha" (folks who've heard Montreal's Lhasa de Sela sing her 1997 CD La Llorona will be less surprised by this one). Jazz, Enigma, and soul in "Sometimes." And best of all, the CD's exit track, "La única excusa," in which flamenco passion meets Brooks & Dunn's country.

-- Michael Freedberg