Da Lata

Word of Bebel Gilberto’s brilliant bossa daiquiri of an album, Tanto Tempo, has spread so quickly that one can only conclude that certain circles are truly famished for superior Brazilian grooves. Da Lata join the ranks of transplanted Euros, like Gilberto’s collaborator, the late Suba, who’ve become enamoured of the sweet bossa groove. Songs from the Tin is very much in the spirit of Tanto Tempo, with its blend of gentle bossa nova breezes with shrewdly matched sampledelica, albeit it in a more deliberately vague way. Despite their work with bossa nova revisionists Smoke City, who are themselves very classically song-based, Da Lata plumb the bluest of bossa nova and tropicalia moods, but rarely commit themselves to any straightforward melodic path. This also despite help from Liliana Chachian on vocals, who has an effortless, deeply melancholy voice perfectly pitched for bossa nova’s delicious sighs. But even though bossa nova is as melodically pure as any pop genre, Songs from the Tin is all the richer for the elusiveness of its songs.