Nana is the surprise shizz

By ALAN PERROTT

Listen to enough music and, sure as eggs, there will come a time when carefully constructed prejudices get a damn good kick up the jacksie.

This week's carefully constructed prejudice is brought to you by Nana Mouskouri.

For those who managed to avoid her Xtreme-easy listening efforts of the 70s, imagine reedy, Grecian vibrato, Eric Morecambe glasses, and cavernous frocks. Shivers.

But hold the phone, night is day and Nana is the shizz after all, because of a solitary track on one superb compilation, Paris Fetiche.

In an album that puts the Ooooo in smooth, her 1966 remake of a Serge Gainsbourg track oozes in garlic with a Shirley Bassey kicker to close, a sure-fire theme for Bond, Jacques Bond.

But wait, there's more, a decades-spanning array of cool Gallic styles, sans Edith Piaf and dear old Serge, dripping in the peculiarly saucy French melancholy that gets them dancing in the streets of Cape Verde.

Prime fillets include Abbey Lincoln, Eddy Mitchell and Brenda Lee, who countrifies on old Piaf number splendidly.

The cultural flow is reversed on Express Way, the second album for French electro combo, Troublemakers.

Arnaud Taillefer and Lionel Corsini hail from Marseille, but they seem keen on setting their funk/ jazz efforts within the racial politics of the United States.

But chapeaux off to the guys, Express Way sounds very good indeed, particularly when proceedings are driven by Gift of the Gab's flowing rap, although their lash at channelling the spirit of Gainsbourg has resulted in a candidate for worst ever Billie Holiday tribute. And a title such as Lester Young in Eternity Blowing his Trumpet Alone? Give it a rest.

Vienna Scientists' fourth compilation showcases the programming skills of notable recruits such as Thunderball and Tosca. No quibbles with their collective ability to arrange, filter or square the diagonal of the hypotenuse, but I would challenge anyone to listen to this and come away remembering anything other than the glaring sample from Steve Miller's Fly like an Eagle.

But never fear, just like buses, there will always be another shiny, Euro-downbeat compilation around the corner. Happily, not all of Johnny Foreigner's efforts have been so tepid this month. Brazilian Beats 5 is player of the day material.

Now there are folks who consider all music south of the Rio Grande in the same vein as chewing tinfoil, but this album tosses out so many tasty musical pies at least one will stick to the most disjointed nose.

Admittedly it probably won't be the first pie, aka "when good drum and bass goes bad", but there on in lie mostly solid gold, goodtime guarantees - not even Botox could contain smiles to Jorge Ben jnr's sunny groove Take it Easy my Brother Charlie.

Elsewhere lies summertime hip hop, in particular Marcelo D2's A Maldica do Samba produced by Beastie Boys' collaborator Mario Caldato, and traditional offerings such as Tudo Bem which is given a glorious, big band makeover by Mancunian producer Sasso. As they say in Brazil, "Goooooooal".

Finally, for bookish types researching a thesis on the decline and fall of the House of House, there is evidence aplenty among the inert nonsense presented on Lost on Arrival, a high-camp, maypole for those who wish the Kaminsky Park anti-disco rally had never happened.

In a nutshell, LoA slops up 17 tracks stupefying enough to leave your feet in the hands of your brain stem while your frontal lobe figures out how to pick up the blonde in the corner.


Paris Fetiche

(Herald rating: * * * * *)

Label: Universal



Troublemakers: Express Way

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Label: Blue Note



Vienna Scientists IV

(Herald rating: * * *)

Label: Universal



Brazilian Beats

(Herald rating: * * * * *)

Label: Mr Bongo



Lost On Arrival

(Herald rating: * *)

Label: Naked Music