Los Amigos Invisibles, Venezuela’s most popular acid jazz / funk group, has been on the scene for more than a decade at this point. Their Grammy-nominated sound, which for the most part has functioned as a consistently refreshing alternative to the standard Latin pop coming out of the Other America, echoes Gilberto Gil during his “Palco” disco-ish days and Jamiroquai, well, at any point in his career. Not So Commercial, released for download February 8, is a follow up to their 2009 release Commercial: technically, in fact, it’s a collection of the “leftovers” from their previous recording session, remastered, re-recorded, and repackaged.

The album itself balances itself between funk-disco party ready tracks and concise jazz-rock riffs that one imagines would be more sprawling in concert. “Corduroy” is a classic psychedelic-rock jam that more than holds it own with any of the blues-jazz masters; when the band is pulsating at this frequency, they’re at the top of Latin American, well, anything. Think Os Mutantes / Talking Heads with a bit more acid jazz / improvisation influence thrown in. “Sweet” balances out the program: it’s thoroughly danceable, despite its somewhat embarassing English-language lyrics (I guess it’s for the “foreign” effect back home).  The production throughout is another strength – precise and smooth enough without being polished to the point of throwing off their sense of spontaneity.

The main issue I have with the album is that on the whole it’s solid – and not too much more. Not So Commercial is essentially a bunch of entirely listenable songs, punctuated throughout with a few classic jams and a general sense of competency that sounds especially refreshing compared to the shit that’s on most Latin American pop stations. I enjoyed listening to it, but very little truly stood out. Other than the LP’s opening track, “G-String,” which was driven by a catchy dose of West African tinged rock-funk I’ve never encountered before, the album as a whole is simply pretty good to occasionally very good. I can’t say it’s bad. It grooves along just fine. But other than a few memorable moments, I can’t say it’s truly great, either.