Da Lata take their name from a Brazilian phrase, literally meaning "from the tin". It originates from a period when cans of high quality weed were being washed up on the Brazilian coast and has since come to mean anything "good".
Songs From The Tin is Da Lata's long awaited debut LP. The core of the band is a collaboration between long serving London Latin/ Jazz DJ Patrick Forge (who amongst other things co-founded legendary Eighties club Talkin' Loud alongside Gilles Peterson) and multi instrumentalist Chris Franck.
The pair began working together in Batu, a live seven piece that made a noise in the jazz dance circuit in the early Nineties. After Batu failed to win a permanent record contract, Forge and Franck formed Da Lata as a studio outfit in 1993. They immediately began to release through the ultra-hip Japanese Brownswood label and secured a host of re-mix work, culminating in a re-working of Edo Lobos' 'Ponteio' on Far Out records. This became a cult classic, but still failed to ignite Da Lata's flame. When Forge discovered Brazilian singer Nina Miranda, Franck put Da Lata on hold to work with her
as Smoke City.
Two years later they began working together again and it's the fruit of this stage that has finally been released as an album. Highlights include the already cult status Pra Manha (featuring Liliana Chacian on vocals), Rio Vida (with Nathan Haines on sax) and Binti (featuring Paris based vocalist Deidre Dubois).
The result is an album that has you salivating for a cool cocktail on a tropical evening. It's been a long time coming but it certainly hasn't suffered from spending so long in the can - Da Lata indeed.
