VERANDA MUSIC
		Leblon
		CD (2000) xxs 012/Indigo CD 9589-2
	The reviews of their first album have been extraordinarily splendid. No matter if Rolling Stone („This is so beautiful, it makes you want to cry“), MTV-Europe ("They're from Australia, aren't they?") or German newsmag DIE WOCHE („This is happening. Grand.“), they all agreed in the uniqueness of "Here's To Them All", last years debut-album of Veranda Music. Even Howie B. got excited: „Best thing I´ve heard in ages.“ Since then: shows in various european countries, a short tour with Dr. John, three videos and a vinyl single with three Brazilian songs. Now, what was going to happen on the second album? After months of studio-hopping and everchanging moods the answer is a goldmine called „Leblon“. Named after a quarter in Rio de Janeiro, „Leblon“ means passion, style, grandezza and excitement. There are sundowners („In a Maze“, „Me and The Palmtree“), African Jazz the Ripper („Going too slow“), melancholy („A different weight“), coffein-trips („Incident at am/pm“), dancing boars, threats („Baby I Will Swallow You“) and last but not least a homage to Steely Dan („Pearl of the Quarter“). There is no modernism in terms of sound or expensive studio-technology. What counts is a feeling for classical, timeless values in music, made by apologists of sound and arrangement as we know them from the protagonists of the history of pop: Lennon, Bowie, Mitchell, Simone, Fagen, Cohen, Barrett. This is continuing the tradition in a seldom and unique way. foto: jochen schmadtke