Another Review in Properly Chilled
Posted by Richard Larsen, August 4, 1990
Una
UNA are a jazz/electronica influenced downtempo trio based in Los Angeles, CA. Their sound borrows heavily from triphop, lounge, Latin, spy movie soundtracks, and torch singer ethics, producing a generally dusky vibe. Drawing comparisons to acts like Morcheeba, King Kooba, Soma Sonic, or Baby Fox isn’t hard to do.
UNA means “one” in Spanish, but in this case, it refers to the trio of Richard Larsen, Jennifer Cook, and Eddie Barajas, whose restrained, low-key sound is hard to pin down. Their promo material says they blend triphop, lounge, Latin, spy movie soundtracks, and torch singer ethics into jazz/electronica influenced downtempo. Not to say there aren’t enough styles folded into UNA’s, but I could also hear elements of classical music.
The CD begins with Jennifer Cook’s multi-tracked vocals sounding like a choir in the aptly titled “Angels At My Door”, though the serenity quickly takes a somewhat melancholy twist. Cook’s voice is young and clear, yet she often sounds like a world-weary chanteuse whose steady coolness might at first make the twelve tracks hard to differentiate. The closer you listen to it though, you begin to notice how she takes different approaches in each song, despite an overall aura of detachment.
Each track has a different beat and style, ranging from the bouncy “Happy the Man” to the fast bass and wah-wah pedal driven “Casa del Fuego”. “She Wolf” has a lilting melody like chamber music. The instrumental introductions to the tracks are mostly built on electronics, though sometimes there’s a smattering of guitar, electric piano, or turntable scratching that create an air of mystery for the ambiguous lyrics that eventually slink onto the scene.
Cook sings languidly on many or even most of the cuts, but she is always backed by beats and lush instrumentation that maintain a lift throughout carefully structured and blended songs that benefit from some beautiful melodies.
I put this CD number UNA on my list (sorry, couldn’t resist that closer).
~ Dave Howell
Tracks:
1. Angels At My Door
2. Nightingale
3. Happy The Man
4. Barbara Henry
5. Casa Del Fuego
6. Fading in C# Minor
7. Freedom On Fire
8. Hate
9. Jona
10. She Wol
11. Wordles
12. Blue Dress
Richard Larsen-co-producer/writer/keyboardist/guitarist
A refugee from the eclectic Chicago scene, Richard came to Los Angeles to work as a producer at Quango Records. He also worked with DJ Krust on the “Konkrete Jungle” Compilation on Ultra Records, and did the Tulku remixes released on Triloka. Delphine Simonis of LA’s KPFK calls The Mighty One (Richard’s Inspiration), “a cross between Mark Farina, Amon Tobin, J.S. Bach and Anouar Brahem, all in one”. Trained in the classics, Rachmaninoff and Orbit, Richard Larsen’s program is hardly retro.
Jennifer Cook
Jennifer is a multi-instrumentalist and full-time member of URB’s Next 100 collective Elephonic, opening for Lee Scratch Perry, Slick Rick & Ghostface Killah, Rocky Dawuni, Wax Poetic, The Nortec Collective, Brazzaville, Shaun Escofferey, DJ Heather, Presto, Rylo, Tony Watson, Cathy Tamkin, Raul Campos, Greyboy, and X-Centric Sound System. She is now co-inventor of KCRWs recently added UNA, an experiment in Latin, blues, trip hop and soul.
Eddie Barajas
Some things that Eddie likes: playing records, throwing pottery, and throwing his bowling ball of course, oh and he brakes for garage sales (and thrift stores for that matter), laughing, making other people laugh, good food, harmony (musical and otherwise), discovering new friends , reuniting with old friends, being a nerd, or geek , or whatever you want to call it, mind expansion, deja vu, extra sensory perception, serendipity, (r)evolution, obscurity, conspiracy theory , cats , saltwater aquariums, experiencing the world, singing along , whistling (along), the wonders of nature, randomness, women who are honest and sincere, playing pinball, handcrafted items, sushi, belgian beers, writing checks, watching a good movie for the first time, the smell and warmth of a lit fireplace, people that relate to these things that he likes, irony, coincidence, tom foolery, progress , a nap, road trips, any trips, energy, cumulus clouds , nimbus and strata are cool too , guessing correctly , playing along, catching drifts, secret missions, riddles, games of skill, skill in general, astrology, archeology, geology, most other – ologies, deciphering personalized license plates, structure, chaos, precision, accuracy, finding treasures, arts and crafts, understanding, gazing , grazing, sophistication, simplicity, (graffiti)art, design, architecture, technology, antiquity, history, the future, THIS IMMEDIATE MOMENT RIGHT NOW,metaphors, similes (sp), euhpemisms, puns and other wordplay, aliteration, reminiscing, daydreaming, old souls, new souls,..
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Bio (except for opening paragraph) provided by UNA
