Customer Reviews

Invoke

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A North American musician who was raised in Brazil, Lindsay later moved to New York, where he became part of the '80s art rock scene, forming the Ambitious Lovers along with Peter Scherer. Lindsay has produced, played on, (or translated lyrics for) many recent albums by folks such as Caetano Veloso, Marisa Monte, and Vinicius Cantuaria, helping add a complex technological veneer to the Brazilian sound. Although at first blush this album may only seem like a retread of the last few records, it certainly has its unique allure. As the disc opens up, the second song, "Predigo," reveals itself as one of Lindsay's most creative arrangements to date, a dense mix of soul, samba and difficult listening. The third song, "Ultra Priveleged," has some easygoing wordplay that makes it readily accessible, although from then on out the album thickens up and becomes more impenetrable, albeit in a very listenable fashion. Fans of his last few albums won't be disappointed.

Arto Lindsay's electronica, with its deep Brazilian rhythms and sensuous sheen, has certainly been influential. From his days in the no wave skronk band DNA through his leadership of Ambitious Lovers, Lindsay has always delighted in breaking convention, expanding genre until the term itself is meaningless. He's a true original, nowhere more evident than on his masterful Mundo Civilizado, with a remake of "Erotic City" as indelible and odd as Prince's original. Though still a master craftsman, on Invoke you can hear Lindsay repeating himself. There isn't a time during these 12 tracks when you don't think: he's done this better before. Yet there are pleasures. The title track is a true invocation - the resurrection, in images, of a vanished lover. And "Beija-me", the simplest number here, is a breezy kiss worthy of Gilberto Gil.

Arto combines so many different styles on his new album, 'Invoke', and pulls it of like a true master. Cinematic strings, electronic bleeps and bloops, jazz drums, noise guitar, Brazilian themes, pretty much anything goes. I'm not sure if I like this one better than the brilliant 'Prize', it will take a few years to tell, but this truly is a rewarding listen. Arto's music comes across as elegant yet naive...avant garde yet fun...and progressive yet classic.

Invoke, Arto Lindsay's latest album, brings to American shores both the past tradition and promising future that Brazilian music is having on the global scene today. Lindsay, who was born in the States, demonstrates this spectrum by incorporating the bossa nova and tropicalia movements he grew up around in the 60's and his more experimental leanings from his basis in New York City with Nação Zumbi, one of Brazil's leading rock bands of the present day. Well-respected amongst his worldwide peers, past collaborators include David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Caetano Veloso, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Brian Eno. Lindsay's warm reedy vocals are secure enough on Invoke to stand on their own but rather than let them dominate his compositions, he allows them to remain natural within the songs' organic structures. "Illuminated" carries a smooth groove and the next track "Predigo" could even be called drum-and-bass. "Over/Run" sounds as if it could be an Everything But The Girl collaboration while the sweet lullaby of a ballad, "Delegada," and the classic "Beija-me" both show the beauty of the Portuguese language. Invoke is easily Lindsay's most accessible album blending the sound of today's Brazil with the country's varied musical history.

What he invokes to make it I don't know. What he evokes is the usual array of things. He sounds a little tired, out of ideas. I somehow don't get the impression he's really illuminated (title of first song), but he could be. There are some nice things here that are somewhat harsher than his earlier forays into tropicalism. He's a good producer. No one else is making music like this for dumb Americans; Gilberto Gil is probably the most accessible of all the post-1967 Brazilian pop musicians, and he's been making this intermittently cool MOR music for years, stuff like "Quanta" which is quite expert, very enjoyable, and overproduced. Those of us familiar with Gil, Veloso, Mutantes, Gilberto, Regina, are glad Arto is doing what he does--it does seem a bit played out now. "Mundo Civilizado" remains his masterpiece to date, a really fine record. So: get this one, it's certainly better than similar music from Sting or Michael Franks or Paul Simon or David Byrne. Then maybe check out some Carlinhos Brown, Sergio Mendes, Elis Regina, or pre-1980 Gilberto Gil.