View seven day for previous Winnipeg Free Press stories.

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After a foray into techno and trip-hop, Aterciopelados have returned to their alt-rock roots with their first studio album in five years. "Oye" or, "Listen" in English, features up-tempo rhythms mixed with minor key melodies, political criticisms wrapped in pop-bass riffs, and whispers throughout of flutes and indigenous drums.

"Oye is a call to attention, to wake up to things that are going on around us, our society, the environment, consumerism," Aterciopelados' singer and guitarist Andrea Echeverri said. "It's also an invitation to listen ..

. after five years without an Aterciopelados album." "Oye" is a strange balance of opposing elements woven together by Echeverri's sultry and powerful vocals.

The result somehow makes the album intimate enough for a romantic dinner and at times energetic enough for a mosh pit - or Miami's American Airlines Arena, where Aterciopelados kick off their U.S. tour Saturday.

For Echeverri, 41, and fellow songwriter, producer and bassist Hector Buitrago, 42, that balance is important in life as well as music. They are recognized on the street, but unlike Colombia's one-name megastars Shakira and Juanes, they don't require private security everywhere they go. The two have remained friends and collaborators years after their romantic relationship faded - their studio at his house, their practice room at hers.

And when the birth of Echeverri's daughter with husband historian Jose Manuel Jaramillo inspired her to write about motherhood, Buitrago gladly produced and played on Echeverri's 2005 album. When Buitrago sought to do the more experimental, Eastern-influenced album "Conector" earlier this year, Echeverri provided vocals. "Oye," released Tuesday by the independent label Nacional Records, echoes both independent projects.

It retains the strong flavour of Colombian indigenous and mystic sounds from "Conector," especially on "Peace" and on "Cross of Salt." Meanwhile, Echeverri says she was again inspired by her daughter, this time to write "Listen Women" and "Mr. Money, which question societal pressures to look like Barbie and to buy everything, including love.

"I want her to understand there are a lot of points of view. Consumerism is inevitable, but it's important to ask yourself how far you have submerged yourself," she said. But even with Barbie, it comes back to balance.

Echeverri admitted her own daughter has a few of the plastic dolls at home. "I tell her that I don't like them and explain why," she said, "but you don't want to come across too heavy." Aterciopelados' search for balance is epitomized in the album's song, "Complement," whose lyrics praises the beauty of contrast: "You give me what I lacked/What before I didn't like/The other half of my orange/You begin where I leave off.

" It's a love song, but it has broader political undertones, Echeverri said. "It's a symbol about tolerance. The opposite of what you are could be exactly what you need.

It's the yin-yang," she said. "It's something we need more of today." As with their last studio album, "Gozo Poderoso," which went platinum, the group recorded the CD in Bogota where they live, inviting local artists to contribute.

"Oye" refers obliquely to the political challenges Colombia faces and its relationship with the United States. In "Protest Song," the duo denounce a laundry list of offenders, including terrorists, agricultural fumigators - a reference to the planes that fly over Colombian forests to fumigate poppy plantations - and even duck hunters. "There's a story about someone close to President Bush who was duck hunting and shot someone.

...

" Echeverri explained with a laugh, referring to vice-president Dick Cheney's February hunting accident and leaving it open as to whether this is serious political commentary or a moment of "not coming across to heavy." Most likely with Aterciopelados, it is a balance between the two. View seven day for previous Winnipeg Free Press stories.