Fourteen years after
Something About April
and almost a decade following
Something About April II
,
Adrian Younge
completes his romantic psychedelic soul trilogy. Unlike the first two volumes, the third one is not a
Venice Dawn
band recording.
Younge
arranged and conducted a 30-piece orchestra at his Linear Labs Studios, and in São Paulo gathered
Céu
Manu Julian
Luiza Lian
Miguel Lian Leite
, and
Antônio Pinto
to sing lyrics he wrote in Portuguese, having studied the language for several years. With the exception of
Jack Waterson
's guitar on one song,
plays all other instruments, from drums, upright bass, and guitar to organ, analog synthesizer, and Mellotron. While it's another one of
's vintage-sounding soul LPs foregrounded in his baroque boom-bap, it's an outgrowth of his
Jazz Is Dead
sessions with Brazilian legends
Marcos Valle
(
JID003
),
Azymuth
JID004
João Donato
JID007
), and
Hyldon
JID023
) as much as it is the finalization of a concept. Subtle rhythmic elements of '60s and '70s Brazilian jazz and MPB are neatly threaded, especially so in the lapping, swaying percussion within the last two songs, "Nunca Estranhos" and "Sorrir na Chuva." (And are those sci-fi synthesizer pulsations a nod to
Deodato
's "UNIVAC Loves You"?) Most of the vocals are choral and in unison, rendering the material less intimate than that of the preceding volumes. The way the highly expressive and emphatic voices radiate and swarm on highlights like the bursting "O Som do Amor" and stormy "Ainda Preciso do Sol" result in heightened senses of drama and vitality. Notwithstanding
's vocabulary limitations, there's an evident wide range of emotions put forth by the singers, and the complexity and richness of the melodies are undeniable. For every familiar
sound -- the jutting organ, the bad-trip psych guitar, the altered-state harpsichord -- there's a new wrinkle or two. Moreover, this contains some of the man's warmest, most inviting work. ~ Andy Kellman