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 0708 - Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted" (1992)

Originally started as a studio-only project, Pavenement released a number of lo-fi releases.   They eventually recruited a drummer for more recordings and even some live shows.

The band certainly weren't courting fame and success, with the original version of this album being circulated on cassette with no song titles listed.   The music created some buzz and eventually the full version of the album was released.

It has kind of a Velvet Underground vibe with vocalist Stephen Malkmus' drawling vocals.  The music is vaguely melodic with lots of noisy guitar; so not unlike more than a few other bands active at the time.   It didn't really grab me.  It's perfectly listenable, but not something I'm likely to revisit or investigate further.

Day 0373 - Out of the Blue

Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue" (1977)

Jeff Lynne once made the daring declaration that ELO would pick up where the Beatles left off but still presenting it on stage rather than being a studio-bound unit.

I was quite surprised to see that this was actually the 7th album by the band, they're a tad more prolific than I'd thought.  They're even prolific within the album itself, it's a double LP, over 70 minutes long and includes a 3-part 12+ minute 'concerto' that took up much of one of the sides.

This album sounds like the work of someone who could easily have 3 or 4 different bands on the go to explore all of his musical ideas, but I find it enjoyable to have the mix of elements such as rock, prog, classical, pop and even hints of disco all fighting for space on one album. I've always liked what I've heard from ELO. This album in particular sounds to me, almost like a meshing of the Beatles and 80s era Queen, among other things.