Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up

Most people can’t find Belize on a map (it’s right there below Mexico), but this compilation suggests its musical traditions aren’t all that foreign. Classic American soul courses through Cult Cargo: Lord Rhaburn’s “Disco Connection” is a Curtis Mayfield–worthy funk vamp; the sensual growl carrying the Web’s “The Same Old Me” would do Otis Redding proud; and the Professionals’ take on “The Back Stabbers” imagines the O’Jays gone Caribbean. Reggae and Cuban jazz also loom large, especially in many of the tunes’ danceable rhythms, and although it’s hard to precisely define the “sound of Belize,” it’s not hard to listen to it.