Day 0903 - Tanto Tempo

Bebel Gilberto "Tanto Tempo" (2000) - got it

I came to Bebel’s music via her collaboration on Mike Patton’s Peeping Tom project.  I enjoyed the sound of that track and decided to investigate Bebel's own music.  At the time the local music stores were pretty well stocked and I managed to find both this and the self-titled follow up reasonably easily and cheaply.

Bebel had been around music her whole life with her father being the famous Brazilian musician João Gilberto who had collaborated on the feted “Getz/Gilberto” album (day 41) and had written the bossa nova classic “Girl from Ipanema”.

Bebel released music with her parents and wrote and released music with a friend before teaming up with Serbian-born producer Suba (see day 879) who had immersed himself in the Brazilian music scene, mixing traditional musical styles like bossa nova with electronic elements.
 

This album takes that mix of styles, but it is fairly subtle on the electronic elements.  They mainly come to the fore in opener "Samba da Benção“, "Alguém” and "Lonely".  There’s a laidback bossa sound to much of the album, with a lovely rendition of bossa classic “So Nice (Summer Samba)”.   

 

Tracks “Bananeira” and “No Return” offer a spicier, livelier side to Bebel’s sound.

Day 0843 - Shleep

Robert Wyatt "Shleep" (1997)

If you were giving points just for longevity, Wyatt would be doing well.  His last entry in this list "Rock Bottom" (day 325) was released in 1974.  If you were just going based on fun song titles he'd be doing well with doozies like "Free Will and Testament" and "the Whole Point of No Return".   If you were going based on the respect of other musicians, he'd be doing well as Brian Eno helps produce and guitars are provided by Paul Weller and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera.

The fact is that, beside all of the above, the music is damned good too.  From the naive 60s-esque pop of "Heaps of Sheep" and "Maryan" to the jazzy experimentation of "the Duchess", the extended fusiony jam of "Alien" to the jazzy beat poetry homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" this is just a great collection of songs.   The music brings to mind everything from the Kinks, early Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa to later interesting and inventive bands like Ween and XTC.

Day 0540 - Cafe Bleu

The Style Council "Cafe Bleu" (1984)

Style Council is another band that I knew by name, but didn't really know much of anything about their music.  In my mind, I think I'd frequently confuse them with Culture Club (who can keep all these clubs and councils separate?).

The Style Council though are a completely different ticket.  With a fairly diverse sound that dips into pop and soul, but mostly hangs around the jazz scene.  Whether it's the almost stride sound of "Mick's blessings", the latin jazz of "the Whole Point of no Return" or the beautiful guest spot from Everything But the Girl's Tracey Thorn on "The Paris Match".

There are some nice instrumentals on the album along with the great songs.  The only real misstep is the attempt at rap in "a gospel", and even that could've been worse than it is.