This is Bebel Gilberto. Born in New York,
she is an American-European-
Brazilian global 21st-century pop diva.
Note: unlike previous "Beyond the Beyond" pop
divas, Bebel is probably not even a Moslem!
Isabel "Bebel" and her home page
The Critics Rave, and Justly So!
I just bought Bebel's 200,000+selling album,
"Tanto Tempo," in the delightfully bonkers
Ziriguiboom / Six Degrees remixes, where her
work has been blenderized by producers from
literally all over the planet.
The Joy of Paying Real Money for Music!
I am digging this thing. Even a white-guy-samba
chestnut like "So Nice (Summer Samba)"
springs into a weird post-60s afterlife once it's
been globally cyberized with a samplerdelic
melange of hisses, whoops, whooshes, bleeps,
thuds and twitters. The spacey remixes of
"Tanto Tempo" sounds like they're scratching
at the edge of the universe with thick rubber
spatulas.
I pay attention to electronica for obvious reasons,
and I can always get along with easy-going,
caiparinha-blurred Brazilian beach music...
I mean, who couldn't like such stuff, it's so
harmlessly sexual and ingratiating... but techno
gives bossa nova some serious nova-osity.
The fact that these are actual songs, with
verse-verse chorus and that ruthlessly slinky
beat, gives all that synth dithering some useful
spine. Hey, it's "Brazilectronica!" This stuff
could conquer the world!
I'm touched by Bebel's not-particularly-flattering
snapshots here, where one can actually tell
what she looks like as a human being.
Not every diva would dare to do this.
Actual Musician, Sometimes Lives Without Mascara!
Especially if they are the luckless Wynnona Judd,
pulled over on a drunk-driving charge without
the services of her Nashville make-up crew.
I hate it when people gloat about pop-star
mishaps like this; it's just so petty.
Police Photographers Pounce Mercilessly
Here on GNOD is Bebel's ever-expanding, ripply,
digital musical universe, which may be just
a bit demographically distorted due to intense
GNOD cyber-geekiness.
