The Buena Vibra Sound System

Tracks like the eponymous "Sidestepper" bring back the band's early sound, paying homage to a night out in a salsa club. Inspired by mambo king Peréz Prado, this tongue-in-cheek tune calls out "Sidestepper sabor [flavor]!" Blair explains, "Like a lot of musical traditions from funk to blues, and salsa is no exception, if you are not bigging yourself up nobody else is going to."

On other tracks, Blair invents new beats entirely. On both "Que Sera" and "La Paloma," Blair explores the triangle between Colombia, Jamaica, and Nigeria. "The more I hear from these three places, the more I hear a relationship" Blair explains. "There is some Nigerian music that sounds as if it could easily be Colombian. So I tried to create a Colombian Afro-beat."

"La Bara Ratin" is an unusual beat coming from Blair's one-time obsession with "making beats that don't fall on the obvious beats of the bar." "Deja" is a reprise from 3am, but this time gets a Sly and Robbie-meets-hip hop treatment. The album has more hip hop references than Blair would have planned, but after working on so many complex rhythms, it was time to make things more simple. "It's like a chef trying to make incredibly complex wedding cakes, who goes home and wants to make a simple steak and eggs meal for himself," says Blair. "You need to have gone through these processes to do something simple well. This album has all those things."

Two tracks are by remixers. "Hoy Tenemos" was done by Boyz from Brazil, who later became the Gotan Project. The U.K.'s Lightning Head started from the ground up, preserving only the original vocals on "Mas Papaya."