World Music: A Whole New Vista ; Cuban Music Continues to Evolve and Thrill the World. PHIL SWEENEY in Havana Savours the New Wave of Local Bands

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Springtime in Havana, and the mood is up-beat. The US embargo may be squeezing hard, but the Cubans excel at Yankee-defying. Havana's latest landmark is a huge stage facing the US Embassy, its arch draped with a big swastika flanked by pictures of torture victims in Abu Ghraib " for which read Guantanamo Bay.

Castro is on TV every afternoon, quavering on about how new treaties with China and Venezuela will save the economy. 'Fidel is very optimistic,' says a taxi driver, without any apparent irony.

So is the music business, judging by the Egrem awards taking place in the Karl Marx Theatre. Egrem " Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales " was for years the …