Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

GILBERTO GIL Raca Humana (WEA) THE FURIOUS firecrack of coffee-maddened maraccas! The frenzied fusillade of bongos, shakers and castanets!! The libidinous shrieks of semi-naked samba dancers as the Rio Carnival froths to a fever-pitch of unfettered Dionysiac abandonment!! Well, no, actually What we have here is an album's worth of easy-going pleasantries, identifiably Brazilian by dint of the Portuguese tongue, but musically bobbing somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. If one can imagine someone courting the twin muses of Sergio Mendes and 'Kaya'- period Bob Marley, then that someone is Gilberto Gil. Thus lilting rhythms susurrate and sunny little melodies soothe - the lull before the lull. Decaffeinated. Mat Snow GILBERTO GIL