Just as listenable as Luna is Arto Lindsay, the Brazilian-raised downtown New York mainstay who long ago invented the guitar-noise concept known onomatopoiecally as skronk. As coleader of the Ambitious Lovers, Linday moved on to something sweeter and sexier--all the airy, rhythmically intricate pop music subsumed under the heading bossa nova. Last year's O Corpo Sutil/The Subtle Body played the style relatively straight--Lindsay's lyrics were no artier than those of his hero, Caetano Veloso. On the even better new Mundo Civilizado (Bar/None), he mixes in drum-and-bass and Brazilian percussion and covers Prince and Al Green as he calmly yet erotically bridges the barrier between English and Portugese.

Less consistently, an honor roll of U.S.-U.K. rockers headed by David Byrne and the Beastie Boys' Money Mark work a fusion on Brazilian pop on the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio (Antilles). Those who want to sample the original can check Nova Bossa: Red Hot on Verve (Verve).

Playboy, June 1997

May 1997

July 1997