Beady Belle — Home

After hearing Beady Belle's song "Moderation" on a Jazzland Records compilation I was very impressed by this duo. It's a very well written poppy and catchy song, a mix between jazz, pop and drum 'n bass. It was christmas at that time and "Moderation" had the perfect mood for this cold, but beautiful winter atmosphere. Four months later I finally got Beady Belle's full lenght album "Home". Released in february 2001 in Norway, the album got a lot of positive feedback by the Norwegian musicpress. Now one year to late, I can finally vent my opinion about this album.

Beady Belle is a collaboration between singer Beate Lech and bassist Marius Reksjo who recorded this album in Beate's home studio, hence the album title. The music is a combination of jazz, pop, techno, drum 'n bass and ambient.

Beate's voice is amazing, soulful and beautiful. She has been one of the sensations of the Norwegian underground scene. She graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music and sung with trip-hop band "Folk & Rovere", who recorded an album for Universal Music, Norway. She also was the lead singer in the jazz project "Metropolitan", performed with "Insert Coin", and collaborated with Bugge Wesseltoft, Jon Eberson and the Brazz Borthers. Bassist Marius Reksjo studied music in university and was bassist for Insert Coin before joining Eivind Aarset's "Electronique Noir" band.

The song "Moderation" is still my favourite track on the album, but opener "Ghosts" comes close to it. Like "Moderation" it has this this tight intense, dancable rhythm, and very catchy, well written lyrics. The songs "Drawback" and "Mobile Bubble" have the same kind of atmosphere. "Lose & Win" is a cool and happy song, just like "Game", which is a melancholy song and has a great refrain to sing-along with. "Consolatory Dance" ends the album on the dancefloor.

Beady Belle are recording a new album at this moment. It will be hard to improve "Home", since it's already a great album. But I'm sure they can come up with something even better. All in all you should be getting "Home" if you like poppy, electronic "nu-jazz", or as Jazzland Records describes it: "Future Jazz from Norway". ...I'm still in love with Beate's vocals.