From cosmopolitan London to inspirational Brazil, Zeep bring you an album inspired by the attitude of the 70s when music was live, urgent, right-on, scruffy, funky and folksy. Imagine Led Zep, The Meters, Joni Mitchell and The Beatles jamming in Brazil with Tropicalistas such as Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil & Os Mutantes - where rock 'n' roll, funk and classic pop get spiced up with a little samba magic - and you're on the right track.
Nina and Chris were involved in two of the biggest selling and critically acclaimed Brazilian influenced acts of the past decade - Smoke City (still remembered for their seminal 'Underwater Love' track) - and Da Lata, signed to Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures label. By no-means limiting their involvement to only 'Musica Brasileira', over the years they have collaborated with a number of world renowned musicians such as Tony Allen, Baaba Maal, Ernest Ranglin, Naçao Zumbi, Marisa Monte, Sly and Robbie, Nitin Sawhney, Jah Wobble, Femi Kuti and Bebel Gilberto to name a few.
The musical chemistry between Nina and Chris was so fluid that the natural thing for them to do was to make an album together. "Zeep is a more folky, more organic album than anything else we've done", says Chris. The songs were mostly dreamt up in their home in North London from jam sessions over the last few years. As the songs took shape, they thought about their friends from Brazil who could help them realise their tales of love, life and the universe with the necessary sub-equatorial tropical heat, and so last summer they jetted off to Brazil to recruit their fellow Zeepistas.
Alongside Nina on vocals & Chris on guitars are some of Brazil's finest musicians: Mauro Berman (bassist for Marcelo D2 and member of Democustico), Marcelo Jeneci Da Silva (keyboardist with Vanessa Da Mata & Chico Cesar) and Marcalzinho (percussionist with Joao Bosco & Pat Metheney). UK based Italian drummer Davide Giovannini (drummer with Marcos Valle & Steve Winwood) came along on the trip with them and back in Blighty they recorded the second half of the album with Mike Lindup (Level 42, Da Lata) on keys , Tristan Banks on drums (Terry Callier, Dave Valentin) plus Diabel Cissokho with guest vocals and Momadou Sarr on djembe. The album also features the voice of UK jazz and TV legend Kenny Lynch and the sax of the superb Jason Yarde (Hugh Masekela, Roy Ayres, Hermeto Pascoal).
Whilst Zeep was mainly dreamt up in London, the beat of Brazil gives the music it's swing, as electric guitars, funky drumming and samba percussion all combine with shouts, whispers and random bursts of 'collective conscience' to produce one of the freshest albums we've heard in a long time. "We made this record without having a record deal in place as we wanted to let the music dictate where it was going", says Chris, "this is music for music's sake, recorded with everyone playing together". "This" finishes Nina, "is why we christened it 'Zeep', because we wanted a name that was born the same time as the music".
Opening track 'Super' sets the tone of the album - a blast of psychedelic folk funk where our 'super-hero powers can take us high', whilst second track 'Funny Old Song' is a snappy uplifting folky bossa where spoken interjections from various Zeepistas give the track a film-like quality. 'Come with me' features the velvety voice of Kenny Lynch - London's answer to Nat-king-Cole - and is a tale of two people down on their luck who find solace in each other. Lyrically it's classic samba and with the shuffling percussive groove and sing-a-long chorus it's undoubtedly one of the albums highlights. 'Zeep Dreams' is a pacey baião featuring Senegalese djembe player Mamadou Sarr and vocalist Diabel Cissoko that connects Brazil to mother Africa.
Other obvious highlights are 'Baby', that featuring Courtney Dennie on backing vocals, is a romantic bossa with a reggae soul vibe. 'Agua', the first ever Nina & Chris song, is a punchy baião inspired by the spirits of those passed away and the essential life-giving property of water. 'Sem Pensar' is sung in Portuguese conjuring up the contrasting physical and socio-economic landscape of Brazil to a lilting rhythm in ¾ time and 'Keep an Eye on Love', is a feel-good R 'n' B samba begging for daytime radio airplay...