Search - Lisa Carbon :: Standards

Latin jazz with a quirky electronic twist

M. J. Nance | Sydney, Australia | 11/12/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lisa Carbon's `Standards' album is a mixture of Latin Jazz music blended with somewhat quirky electronic tampering, which makes for some pretty groovy and interesting listening.



Some of Lisa Carbon's music is a bit cut and paste, using samples, acoustic instruments and synthesisers (ie - she tends to solo on the moog). At times the solos within the tracks tend to meander once a repeated motif is established, but they usually change or mutate into another form before you begin to lose interest.



If you're a fan of Señor Coconut or Atom Heart (the same person, I think), then this is for you. Lisa Carbon is credited as the soloist on a couple of tracks of Mr Coconut's, as well as on a remix of Towa Tei's fantastic track `GBI (German Bold Italic)', remixed as `GBI (Latin Narrow Light)' - definitely a remix worth checking out.



The artists on this album should really read as Lisa Carbon & Atom Heart, as it appears to be more of a collaboration (they both appear on one another's albums in some form).



I'm quite a fan of Lisa Carbon's work, as well as Señor Coconut, simply because it's an interesting, sometimes experimental and quite tongue-in-cheek take on Latin music. The thing is, both artists can create catchy and layered tracks in the style quite well, with thorough knowledge of different strains of Latin-derived music. So while they might play with the components of a typical Latin song, they can still create a well-produced, passable modern Latin track.



The standout tracks on the album are `Bossandfunk', `Duck Cha Cha', `Space Oddity' (yes, a laid-back David Bowie cover), `A Bailar El Tape-Charleston', and `Fiesta En Belo Horizonte'.



From what I've heard of it, her album `Trio De Janeiro' is worth checking out if you enjoyed `Standards'."