Rating:
Genre:
Electronica
Release Date: 10/15/2002
With its heavy Brazilian focus and lazy-day atmospheres, it's not difficult to see why
Arkestra One's debut LP was picked up by
ESL, the
breakbeat label run by
Thievery Corp. boardmembers
Eric Hilton and
Rob Garza. Surprisingly, though, producer
Matthew Timoney outdoes
Thievery themselves (who are prized more as taste-makers and DJs than producers) by turning in an imaginative spin on the oft-heard fusion of Brazilian music and
trip-hop. Accompanying him on most tracks is
Smoke City singer
Nina Miranda, who is half-Brazilian, half-English and not only turns in a solid impression of the naïvely romantic
Astrud Gilberto for
"I Really Want You" and
"How Could I Love You More," but shows her range by scatting along on a bright
samba piece,
"Train to Machupichu." Timoney is really the one holding it all together, though, evoking the simple pleasures of a mid-'60s production by
Marcos Valle or
Sergio Mendes on
"Filling It With Sound"; constructing a slinky
Portishead backing for the highlight
"Seu Paraiso"; and gracefully turning the production around on
"Shine," which exits with an eerie back-masked portion of the song itself.
~John Bush, All Music Guide
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