Inna gadda Da Lata

>> Christian Franck and Patrick Forge declubbify those Brazilian beats

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The musical culture of Brazil is a spectacularly intricate one, rife with crossovers, subsections and variations. In that spirit, the sambatronic clubsound insurgence of late, reaching from New York to Berlin to Tokyo, is becoming increasingly complex itself. Take London-based Da Lata as an example.

Centred around musician Christian Franck (also of urbane bossa-loungers Smoke City) and DJ Patrick Forge (founder of seminal acid jazz label Talkin' Loud and star DJ on London's KISS-FM), Da Lata has a history that, while reasonably short--they've only just released their debut CD Songs From the Tin--is nonetheless peppered with names ranging from London's global rhythm providah Gilles Peterson to Japanese house heavyweights U.F.O., from native Brazilian freak Carlinhos Brown to O.G. reggae pimp Chris Blackwell, whose label Palm Pictures Da Lata calls home.

Oddly, is was New York City, not London, that initially took Da Lata to heart. "People like DJ Joe Clausell picked up on a tune called 'Ponteio,'" says Franck. "That was the first real Da Lata single. It was a tune that, when those guys heard it, I think fulfilled something that was lacking. Especially the beat--that was the most programmed thing Da Lata's ever done, by the way. There were a lot of people experimenting with Latin beats and styles at the time, and to me they were just throwing things together without really understanding. So with 'Ponteio,' I really wanted to make that clear. If you want to program, fair enough, but at least see where it's all going.

"Afterwards, I heard that beat so many times. So many people were incorporating that beat, the kick and the high hat, into so many tunes, and I think that's what people latched on to. You could play it in house clubs, Latin clubs, all clubs. It's just a club tune, and that's all it needed to do. It set Da Lata off."

While not specifically out to bite the hand that feeds, the pair felt a need to steer Da Lata away from the club scene that had fostered them, at least as far as the album's sound was concerned. "The aim of this album was very much not to make it club-conscious. That would be the most logical thing to do, and I wanted it to be free of all pigeonholes. I wanted it to be rawer, I wanted the energy to be more organic, more rootsy, more earthy. It's nice to have something that people of all different ages can listen to. In music in general, I don't like the closedness of being involved in a scene where you have to do club music." The proof in the proverbial pudding: Forge will be spinning separately from Da Lata when they play here as a six-piece, electronics-free band.

"There will be another Da Lata album," Franck continues, musing on what's to come, "but it's something that'll have to come naturally, as to how we do it. It's not going to be like this at all. It can't be. This was very much about being as organic and live as you can with this kind of thing. It's naturally progressed from the studio into the live show, and will continue progressing naturally. It's nice when things happen that way." :

At Tokyo on Wednesday, August 9, 10pm, $10