I’m a sucker for unpolished retro sounds, so let’s just say that when I heard about a Puerto Rican act who used to give himself to hip hop and R&B, but now blithely indulges in a rough-edged '60s aesthetic, I had to give it a try. Pedro Luis Muñoz Hernandez aka Unochosiete (you know, “cause it’s 187 on an undercover cop”) says his approach to writing songs didn’t change much from when he was doing hip hop, but the recording process was far more low-key. “Del uno al nueve” (Get it? Sin cero, sincero?), first track off la flor o la pólvora, is a cheeky love song fueled with enough charming nonchalance and handclaps/siren calls to make you do the twist. Recorded in his bedroom last year while on a student exchange in Madrid, la flor o la pólvora features a potent mix of bedroom-size garage, dirty ballads, and raw doo-wop, confirming that Puerto Rico isn’t done giving birth to the coolest filthy rock acts.