MATT BIANCO-Indigo (1988)

ORIGINAL POSTING DATE: January 12, 2012

Art in deception? Followers of "The Music Spectrum" may notice that my posts purposely tend to follow a theme of some sort, whether the albums I'm featuring are all of a specific music genre, are releases by similar-sounding artists or is something even as simplistic as having a bunch of artists whose names all begin with the same letter of the alphabet. Well, for this post, I got a little creative. Seeing that I've recently done a feature on Lory Bianco, whose been on my mind for the past couple of weeks—and even more so with the recent conversation between my friends Nastyg and Adriana in the Cbox (yes, I've been watching you guys :-), plus the fact that I've been concentrating on jazz music for this particular week, I thought it would be fun to do a feature on another cool British artist—MATT BIANCO. First bit of deception—this guy is in no way, shape or form related to Lory Bianco. Second bit of deception—MATT BIANCO isn't the personal name of a solo artist; it's the name of a group that's fronted by vocalist Mark Reilly. It's the same amount of deceptiveness caused by the Scottish band DANNY WILSON, which also sounds like it should be the name of a single individual rather than a group. Then the third piece of deception.....and they say things do come in threes—MATT BIANCO isn't even a real person. I had learned that bit of info a few years ago, but it wasn't until tonight where I did some extensive reading up on this band that I found out the true origin of the name—a fictional spy and secret agent created by the passion for spy stories in television and film shared by the group members. And a possible fourth piece of deception—vocalist Mark Reilly sounds so much like vocalist Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot of the fellow British sophisti-pop group CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT that I used to think that the songs found here on MATT BIANCO's "Indigo" album were originally performed by CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT instead. But all the deception ends right there; there's so secret that MATT BIANCO's music, which is a combination of Latin-inspired bossa nova and jazz (there's that word again!), is all real and it's all world class. Wow—which of these twelve songs isn't a hit? The opening number, "Don't Blame It On The Girl", is definitely one of them. You almost have to have the 12-inch remix of it in order to get your full enjoyment out of it; otherwise, you'd miss out on the terrific instrumentals that plays for well over a minute before the vocals come in. "Nervous", which beat reminds me of an old funk song I recalled hearing snippets of on a TV commercial, and "Slide", which sounds like one of those classy street jazz tunes from those old detective movies (inspired by the band's passion for spy movies?) were the two songs on this album that I got confused with being performed by CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT; both of these are hits as well. Then moving down the track-listing even further, we have one of my personal favorites, "Say It's Not Too Late", followed by a real treat—"Wap Bam Boogie", which is one of those late-80's dance jams that's so far ahead of its time because it sounds like it was snatched out of era of 90's house music and transported back to the previous decade, like Lisa Stansfield's "This Is The Right Time". I give an extra star to "Wap Bam Boogie" because there's a rare treat within this treat—the sweet instrumental flute melody. Sure, we commonly associate the trumpet and saxophone with jazz music, but a flute? This song proves that you can make it work if you put enough skill into it. And at 7+ minutes long, it's like an extended remix all by itself, so you can really get your groove on to this one. And not only that—it sounds like it could've been a PWL production, just as the next track, "Good Times", could have. The final quartet consisting of "R & B", "Hanging On", "Jack Of Clubs" and the title track all are terrific vocal performances with "Jack Of Clubs", whose beat is simply marvelous, being my favorite among this group:

1. Don't Blame It On That Girl
2. Nervous
3. Slide
4. Say It's Not Too Late
5. Wap Bam Boogie
6. Good Times
7. R & B
8. Hanging On
9. Jack Of Clubs
10. Indigo
11. Don't Blame It On That Girl [12" Mix]
12. Good Times [12" Mix]