TBT107
"Rediscover your love of Bossa Nova!"
Tiger Blood Tapes proudly presents for the first time ever on cassette, Richard Bone's 1998 Ambient Electro Jazz album "Electropica".
Features an unreleased outtake "Cosa Nova".
"Electropica" is part one in a trilogy of Richard Bone's Ambient Electro Bossa Nova albums.
Originally released in 1998 on CD by Quirkworks Labratories.
Press Release:
"A curious thing happened to me during the summer of 1996. While leaving a favorite music store, I detoured down the jazz isle. Suddenly, one of the discs flung itself out of the bin and landed squarely at my feet. I was immediately drawn to its cover. A giraffe was gliding across cobalt blue sand beneath an emerald green sky. Without a second thought I bought the disc and brought it home. My life was about to change.
The disc was Antonio Carlos Jobim's "WAVE". Recorded in 1967, it was one of the most sensual works I had ever heard. The gentle rhythms, the haunting melodies were mesmerizing. The stereo imaging of producer Creed Taylor was magical. I must have played it ten times that night. These were beats of another time, another place. Innocent, yet primal, but most of all...romantic. This was Bossa Nova!
I have spent the last year and a half researching this old/new music. I discovered the masters of this genre: Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Joao Gilberto. During those many months I listened to little else.
ELECTROPICA is my homage to these artists. Through the melding of sampled, found and created sounds, I have tried to capture my impression of this music, these rhythms. My work in the past has been described as ambient or electronic. For this release, I set those catagories aside.
I hope you will take a little time and listen to ELECTROPICA with unbiased ears. Close your eyes and envision a different world. With giraffes, perhaps, and emerald skies above cobalt sand.
Peace Always,"
-Richard Bone
www.windandwire.com
**WIND & WIRE - A Review by Bill Binkelman
Issue #6**
1998
ELECTROPICA
Richard Bone
Richard Bone has done it again! Following hot on the heels of his excellent dub-stylistic ambient recording with John Orsi (A Survey of Remembered Things, reviewed in issue 3) Richard has re-invented ambient-dub/electronica by marrying his wonderfully idiosyncratic approach with his passion for bossa nova music. The result is the incredibly infectious, bouncy, trippy, fun and seductive Electropica. This one should definitely put Richard on the map. If fans of electronica do not gobble this CD up in record numbers, there is no justice in the world.
When I talked to Richard for the interview in issue 3, he mentioned his love affair with the bossa nova musical movement of years past. He mentioned this project and I did a mental “Oh no!” because I have a limited capacity for adventure (I made the same mistake when I first learned of a John Serrie holiday album). Don’t fall into the same trap I did! This is a fantastic recording that will appeal to lovers of sultry smoky electronica. Yeah, there is no such thing -- until now, that is.
Starting off the “The Andean Gray,” Richard dials in the bossa nova rhythms, melded with swirling synths and cool as ice electronica. The song sets the pace for the release and the delicious ear candy to follow. As the song unfolds, Richard brings in breathy flute and piano as the piece morphs into something sexy and film-noirish. After that great beginning, listen to the strains of the title cut, with its synthetic “scratches” in the mix (which made me think of old record albums). Then there’s the oh-so-mellow synth-sax swaying to a bossa nova beat that is just too cool! Swingers unite, baby!
“Waveland” features bouncy percolating rhythms with a hint of dub--and fun galore--as a piano-laced melody line sends you dancing around the room. Fun is the operative word for this recording. Richard had also said in the aforementioned interview that he had little interest in negative or dark-sounding music (as much as he respected practitioners of same). Well, Electropica is the proof of that statement! It is a stone-solid blast from start to finish.
As with all of Richard’s recordings, the sound on this one is state of the art. Head-phones are a must to get the best effect, unless you can crank it at home (apartment dwellers beware)! And you will want to turn up this music to squeeze every delicious note, chord and rhythm from it. It is that good.
It ought to be obvious by now that if you think electronica or electronic music needs to be dark or serious to succeed, you should pass on this one. But, you’re missing out. However you slice it, daddy-o, Electropica is already a serious contender for best release of 1998. For lovers of ambient-dub who don’t mind smiling now and then (are there any of you out there?) try this one on for size. It’s guaranteed to kick start your libido!
- Bill Binkelman -
Stay tuned for vinyl coming soon!