VA - Espresso Espresso - A Lightly Latin Brazilian Blend (1996)

In between putting together the two volumes of their In Flight Entertainment lounge compilation series, the Karminsky Experience assembled this compilation. Unlike the genre-hopping In Flight Entertainment discs, this album focuses strictly on lounge tracks with a Latin flavor. In some cases, the track merely involves the artist working Latin rhythms into their sound: "Couleur Café" finds Serge Gainsbourg incorporating samba-styled percussion to spice up the song's French sense of coolness, while Burt Bacharach applies a gentle bossa nova beat to flesh out the acoustic pop of "Something Big." Other tracks are exotica-style in creating a faux-Latin feel: "Flyin' High" is a Baja Marimba Band track that layers percolating horns and vocal scats over a marimba-flavored slice of bossa nova, and James Last's "Happy Brazilia" is a wild rhythmic exercise that adds carefree vocal wails and all sorts of Brazilian percussion to a track built on a thumping tribal beat. There are also plenty of Latin-styled covers of pop hits: the Stanley Black Orchestra transforms the feedback-driven Beatles classic "I Feel Fine" into a peppy exercise in easy listening mambo and Ray Rivera reworks the American Breed's pop hit "Bend Me Shape Me" into a swinging example of Latin jazz. Everything blends together nicely on the disc (the compilers are DJs, so they establish a nice flow from track to track) and all the tracks blend pop hooks and Latin rhythms without devolving into exotic kitsch. The one downside of Espresso Espresso is that since it focuses on one style of music, it lacks the breathtaking surprises and freewheeling sense of adventure that marked the In Flight Entertainment series. It would have been nice to see the compilers take more chances and throw in more wild selections like "Happy Brazilia." Despite that minor caveat, this is a solid and very listenable disc that is sure to please lounge fans with a yen for Latin rhythms.~Espresso Espresso Review by Donald A. Guarisco