Before Ry Cooder brought the Buena Vista Social Club into Starbuckses and Barnes & Nobles across the land, there was Marc Ribot y los Cubanos Postizos.

Formed on a bit of a lark by fellow NYC session musicians, the band applied its subtle contemporary American touch to a classic Cuban/Puerto Rican sound. Ribot is at his loosest and most comfortable here, while the Prosthetic Cubans cook behind him in a way that transports the listener to a modern Havana that exists only in myth for us outsiders.

The albums are fun, sexy, and musically engaging all at once; but are all too short, with none forthcoming, sadly. But, on a warm night, with the right drink, the right dance partner and these albums, you have only to close your eyes to remember a place you've never visited - a place that maybe never existed.

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