Drum & Bossa

Album review

What would normally be another in a line of bored junglists trying to attach to any random subgenre that passes them by is in fact a sophisticated and tightly packed arrangement of Latin jazz, hard-boiled drum'n'bass, and British 2-step. The key moments of Drum & Bossa -- the abrupt payoff in "Round the Corner" and the not-unpleasant post-adolescent Mis-Teeq touch of "Incurable Voices" -- invoke strange reactions in the listener, everything from impatience to soft resentment over someone who can make a mild evolutionary statement out of a simple repetition of old ideas. While there's little denying that once listeners have heard one track they've basically heard them all, and Landslide can't help to countermine his own importance with too many detours and farcical vocals, the fact that he appears like he's onto something in his world of bossa beat garage adds to the appeal.
© Dean Carlson /TiVo