Despite its oceanic moniker, this Vancouver trio looks more southward for its musical inspiration. Formed by guitarist Adam Popowitz, bassist Toby Peter and Peruvian-born singer Silvana Kane, Pacifika merges percolating Latin rhythms with the sort of down-tempo textures more commonly found in the works of Zero 7 and Kruder & Dorfmeister. The result is plenty beguiling on Asunción (2008), the group’s debut disc for San Francisco indie label Six Degrees. And one will not find traces of the bouncy teen pop that Kane performed when she was a member of the West End Girls. No, Pacifika are out to create a more sophisticated and more eminently global sound.—Jason Anderson